Diamonds in the Rough
by dyingimmortal
Summary: Post-BD; Leah's still feeling bitter about vampires, imprinting, and life in general. A certain empath decides to help. Leah/Jasper friendship.
1. 一

_**Warning:** This story contains excessive foul language and some sexual references. That's why it's rated T, folks._

_That being said__…_

_Hey. This is my first multi-chaptered Twilight fic. Leah-centric, of course, because Leah's just that awesome. Constructive criticism would be appreciated._

_I got the idea for this from "Cowboys & Indians," a completed Leah/Jasper (and Edward and Seth thrown somewhere in there) friendship Twilight fanfic by __**Minisinoo**__. You should all go read it. Right now. Seriously. It's one of the most bloody brilliant Twilight stories EVER, and the best Twilight werewolf/vampire friendship fic I've ever read. Historically accurate details (as far as I know), philosophy, in-character characters (xD), great character development, great development of friendship… etc. BEST. STORY. EVER. Drop everything and read it. RIGHT NOW. (And then you can read this after. xD) My story paled, pales, will pale, whatever, in comparison. Thanks._

_…__ okay, rave over. (It's all true, though. Srsly.) This is a Leah/Jasper FRIENDSHIP fic. No romance. Yeah.  
_

_I'm not that great with writing Leah's personality (only some drabbles), so please tell me if she seems out of character, and how, if you could be bothered. :) Thanks. Same goes for Jasper. (Because God forbid he becomes "perfect_" _like /some/ vampires__…)_

_Sorry for the extremely long author's note. Now, onwards~_

_

* * *

_

_Leeches suck. In more ways than one._

Quirking her lips sarcastically at the pun, Leah Clearwater threw herself down onto a random, nearby couch and crossed her arms rather huffily over her chest.

A week hadn't passed yet after the "battle" with the Volturi, so all the bloodsuckers with the weird names were still hanging around the Cullens' Cleanly Crypt of Creepy Constitutional Correctness, or 6C, as Leah had dubbed it (she liked alliteration; it was the best she could come up with in place of "bloodsuckers' extremely tidy house of doom and creepily nice, politically correct décor"). Jacob, in all his alpha glory, had told his pack (between stuffing his face with food and letting his imprint, the creepy little Leech Spawn touch him… alpha glory indeed), ever so eloquently, to "hang around and patrol 'cause there still might be some leech royalty or whatever around, and I want to kick their asses."

Leah, having just finished another one of her patrols with Seth, and sporting her _own _clothing (well, her own tank top and a pair of her little brother's old shorts), thankyouverymuch, had stormed into 6C to find Jacob, and preferably insult him. However, he was hanging out with his Leech Spawn imprint, in the middle of a crowd of bloodsuckers and the Leech Spawn's disgustingly happy, annoying, lovey-dovey parents themselves, Mind-Rapist Leech and… Leah couldn't think of something catchy or derogatory enough for Bella Swan/Cullen (she decided she really needed to find a name for them as a couple, preferably extremely insulting and something that utilized alliteration). Leah did not fancy going up to Jacob _then_… standing by the dumpster was bad enough, but diving into it? _No thank you._

So now she waited, bored and annoyed, for her alpha to finish his Precious Quality Time with the Leech Spawn. Luckily, Dr. Dracula McFangy and his family had enough money to afford a huge house, a huge house that included more than just one room with couches to recline on, so she could at least hang out there unwillingly in peace, without the presence of bloodsuckers. Leah propped her feet onto the coffee table in front of her and hoped that her dirty, bare feet would stain the glass there. _The more, the better, _she said to herself, but her viciousness lacked any real bite.

"What are you doing here?"

Leah started in surprise at the words, which had hit her at about the same time the stench did, and half-turned, twisting her body around to glance at the speaker. Unfortunately, the fact that her feet were up on the coffee table prevented her from doing this properly, and she landed on the expensive-Persian-carpeted floor with a thump and a series of muffled expletives.

_Peace, my ass. There's never peace when the bloodsuckers are around.  
_

"Mind your own fucking damn business," she snapped, heaving herself up off the floor. It was the blonde bloodsucker, the male one, who had spoken. The one who could manipulate emotions. _Stupid leeches with their stupid goddamn powers._

"You're in my house," the leech said, his tone actually daring to sound slightly _amused_. "I'd think it's at least partially my business."

"Fuck off," Leah responded automatically.

"This is my house," he reminded her, again. Yep, he definitely sounded amused. _Fuck him._

Leah had to stop herself from actually growling at him. He didn't deserve a growl. He didn't deserve _anything_. Bloodsuckers didn't.

She sprawled herself back onto the couch, deliberately trying to appear as insolent as possible, and studiously ignored him.

This worked for about five minutes, and then her temper frayed, in a way the carpeting in the house never would. It wasn't like she could help it, though; it was the damn leech's fault for standing there, still as a statue, and staring at her with that slightly thoughtful and otherwise inscrutable expression on his face. _Damn bloodsuckers and their unnaturalness. _"What the hell are you staring at me for? Go suck blood or something!" _Wait… I shouldn't encourage him… crap! Ugh!  
_

"Why are you so hostile?" he asked, as if she hadn't even spoken. _And he's so freaking impolite, ignoring me… hasn't he ever heard of decorum?! _Never mind the fact that Leah had just been ignoring _him_ and putting her dirty feet up on _his_ family's coffee table, of course.

"Why shouldn't I be?" she snarled back.

He smiled tolerantly, like a mother explaining to her toddler for the first time that yes, fire is hot. No touchy fire. It burns. Ouch. (Leah realized that she wasn't just thinking about fire anymore, and quickly returned her attention to the present.) "Why do you hate us?" the leech was asking.

"I was made to." Leah glared at him, wondering why she'd actually answered his question—and without an insult too!—and stared down at the couch she was currently sprawled on. There were a bunch of creases on it, and a stain that looked like… blood. _So not _everything's_ perfect in this entire goddamn house. Ha!_

Then she realized that the stain was _blood_, probably from some animal (or maybe even human!) the leeches had been sucking (in the house?), or the blood Jacob had said Bella fucking Swan had thrown up or something before she'd given birth to the Leech Spawn…

Leah jumped from the couch as fast as she could… a little too fast. She went down again in a tangle of limbs and cursing.

"Do you always swear so much?" It was the blonde emotion-fucking leech again.

"Damn it, you're _still_ here?" Leah demanded. "Why the hell can't you just leave me alone? Don't you have better things to do than stand here and stare at me?"

This time, he actually acknowledged her words and answered her question. "I'm trying to figure you out," he said, calmly.

"There's nothing _to_ figure out. What the hell are you talking about?" Leah spat back at him.

He smiled, still tolerant. _Fire always burns. _"Your emotions are… all over the place," he finally said, carefully, as if he was taking deliberate care in his word choice.

Leah stared at him, stupefied for a moment, and then stupefaction was quickly replaced with anger. "I don't need you screwing around with my emotions!" she shouted, perfectly aware that every leech in the house could probably hear her now. And likely Jacob, too. _Yeah, well, fuck Mr. Leech Spawn Lover. … I'm telling a lot of people to fuck themselves today, huh? I should stop… no, I do _not_ care if I'm talking to myself! Fuck you! … there I go again. … O-_kay_. Shutting up now._

"I'm not 'screwing around,' as you so eloquently put it, with your emotions," the leech said, still calm and tolerant, as if she hadn't just shouted at him. _Huh. I said that eloquent thing about Jacob earlier_, Leah noted in the back of her mind_. _"Haven't you noticed that you haven't felt inexplicable calm or such?"

"Yeah, well, I don't need you _planning_ to screw around with my emotions." Leah glared at him for good measure. Glares of Doom from Leah often sent most people running for the hills.

Blonde Emotion-Fucking Leech (or BEFL, as Leah decided to call him on the spur of the moment), however, was not _most people_, apparently. Then again, vampires usually weren't. (The whole glittering-in-sunlight and drinking-blood thing was kind of a dead giveaway.) He only smiled (and if he continued looking all calm and forbearing she'd have to slap that smile off his face, regardless of how much it would definitely hurt her hand) again. "I'm not planning to, either."

"Well, then stop reading my emotions! Mind your own fucking damn business!" Leah screeched at him, her temper flaring again. "All people want to do is screw around with my life! Leave me _alone_!"

She realized, with some dismay, that she was no longer talking about the BEFL (what was his name, again, anyway?) wondering about her emotions. And now there was a new expression on his face—one of slight sympathy and understanding. He probably knew what she was suddenly thinking, and felt it, too. Leah was suddenly overcome with the urge to phase and scratch and tear at that look on his face until it was as scarred as Emily's (not possible for bloodsuckers, unfortunately), so he couldn't look at her that way anymore.

She turned and ran instead.

* * *

_The chapters will get longer as the story goes on. Probably. So, what do you think so far? Reviews are awesome. ;D -hinthint-  
_


	2. 二

_Thank you to everyone who reviewed for doing so! _

_For anyone wondering, because I'm sure at least some of you will: the chapter titles are just (going to be) "one," "two," "three," "four," etc, in Chinese characters, because my creative juices are failing me and I can't think up any good chapter titles right now, but just "Chapter 1" and stuff like that is boring. :P_

_(Holy shit; I just edited the last chapter, changed a bunch of things, deleted some and added others, and there__'__s the exact same number of words! Eerie coincidence, no?)  
_

_

* * *

_

Leah ran.

She couldn't hear anyone talking, and she knew it wasn't just because of the blood suddenly rushing through her ears. _Screw them. Screw them all! I don't care!_

She raced through the hallway until she got to the Cullens' back door and, wrenching it open, dashed out, feeling a familiar red haze wash over her vision, clouding her other senses. A customary warmth shot up her chest, her feet and hands morphed into paws, her face elongated, and fur grew out all over her body as she burst out of her clothing. A slight twinge of regret nagged at her—she didn't care about Seth's old shorts, but that had been the last good, clean tank top she had—but she ignored it, choosing instead to bask in the feeling of being a wolf again, blocking out everything else that had just transpired.

As she sprinted through the woods, she was suddenly aware of another presence in her mind.

_Leah! Leah, what's the matter?_

Leah swore quietly to herself and sped up, ignoring her little brother's mental voice.

_Leah, come on, tell me! What's wrong? Why'd you freak out on Jasper?_

So _that_ was BEFL's name. Jasper. Huh.

_I didn't hear what he said to you—did he insult you or something? He's always polite to me and Jake; dunno why he was rude to you, if he was, anyway—what's BEFL?_

As Leah kept running, still ignoring Seth, she became conscious of the fact that she could hear him chasing after her, already somewhere far behind. She increased her speed again, though, pushing her muscles to their limits, just in case. She wasn't the fastest wolf of La Push—_but maybe not _of_ La Push, anymore, huh? _she thought, rather bitterly—for nothing.

_Leah! You _finally_ said something!_

_Crap._ She'd forgotten Seth was still hanging around in the back of her mind.

_I thought you were going to ignore me for a long time, _he commented.

_Shut the hell up, kid. We just finished patrols, so why're you still hanging around in wolf form, anyway? Go away._

_I heard you yelling at Jasper, _Seth explained, confirming Leah's suspicions. _So I phased, 'cause I thought you might—_

_Whatever you thought, you thought wrong, _Leah snapped back._ Just leave me alone._

_Jasper's really nice, _Seth said, his mental tone sounding as if it were meant to be soothing. Leah personally thought he sounded either worshiping or constipated. Probably both. _I am _not_ constipated,_ Seth added, before continuing his little Jasper's-the-best spiel. _Or worshiping him. And anyway, Jasper's really nice to us, especially for a vampire, so I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt your feelings._

_Hurt my _feelings_? What is this, Seth, kindergarten or something?_

_You know what I mean._

_Yeah. And I don't agree with you. Shut up and go away._

_Come _on, _Leah, won't you at least tell me what he said to you that upset you?_

He hadn't _said_ anything. That was the problem. BEFL—Leah decided she liked that better than "Jasper," because giving him a name actually personalized him as something other than a leech (even if he only hunted animals, or tried to)—had only just given her that _look_ like he totally knew what she was feeling, when he so totally did _not_. Okay, so maybe he _did_ feel what she did—since he was the leech who screwed around with emotions and all that—but he hadn't lived it firsthand. He hadn't gone out with Sam and loved him (heck, she probably still loved him underneath all the bitterness and hurt, despite all that had happened), seen Sam's face when he saw Emily for the first time, or heard Sam's thoughts about Leah and then Emily when they were both in the pack, or…

_So basically, you got mad at Jasper because he felt your emotions? He can't help it, you know. It's not like a switch he can just turn on and off. _

_Crap. _Leah cussed some more loudly, in her head, spitting out the words at the top of her mental voice. She'd forgotten about Seth again. What was _wrong_ with her? Just because she'd had blessedly mostly-peaceful almost-silence for a few months or weeks or so didn't mean she was supposed to start forgetting when people were still hanging around in her head, especially when she was in wolf form.

_It's okay. I forget sometimes, too,_ Seth offered. He clearly thought he was being helpful.

_Seth! Ugh! Get out of my head!_

_You know I can't, _he reminded her.

_Then phase back! I don't want your freaking company, anyway!_

_No. Come on, Leah, _he pleaded. _And will you slow down? I can't catch up to you._

_That's kinda the point, dumbass. _

_You shouldn't call your little brother names._

Leah growled, irritated. _I'll show you name-calling, you annoying little—_

Seth interrupted before she could show off her superb insulting skills. _I don't really care if you swear at me, so shut up for a moment and—_

_Oh no, you did _not.

_Oh yes, I did. And that's not the point! Stop distracting me!_

_I have an idea,_ Leah suggested. _Why don't you do this little thing called phasing back into a human? That way, I won't be in your head anymore, and therefore I can't distract you! Great idea, right?_

_Yeah, no thanks._

_Annoying little brat._

_I told you I don't really care if you call me names—_

Leah suddenly noticed another presence in her mind, this one strong and firm, and a gust of wind that blew past her told her there was another wolf chasing after her, still behind but gaining ground quickly… or quicker than Seth was, anyway. Leah was still the fastest. _Hello, dear alpha. I'm_—she refused to acknowledge Seth; maybe that would make him go away (though that was rather unlikely)—_special enough to be graced with your presence, especially during what's supposed to be your time with the Leech Spawn? Well, don't I feel speeeciaaaal. _She drew the word out just to annoy him. It worked.

_Don't call Nessie a leech spawn, _Jacob said shortly. In a softer tone, he added, _Sorry I couldn't get here earlier; Nessie wanted to finish showing me something and then Edward told me what was wrong—_

_Yeah, yeah, the spawn's your imprint, she's way more important than us. _… Crap, Edward had told him.

_That's not what I mean, Leah, and you know it. And I told you not to call her a spawn! And speaking of Edward telling me things—_

_You said no leech spawn,_ Leah cut in hurriedly._ You never said anything about just spawn. _

Jacob growled. _You know what I meant. And don't think I'm sufficiently distracted—_

_Ooh, sufficiently. What a big word. Our little alpha's growing up!_

_Leah…_

_Hey, what happened with Leah and Jasper exactly, anyway? _Seth wanted to know, chiming in.

_Damn. Thanks a _lot,_ Seth._

_No problem, _he returned, ever so cheerful. _So, Jake, what happened?_

_Can you not talk about me like I'm not here? _Leah demanded.

_We're not talking about you like you're not here. We're talking about what happened to you, not you._

_Nothing happened, damn it! You're making a big deal out of absolutely nothing_.

_Why'd you run away, then, if it was nothing? _Jacob inquired.

_Ugh! You people are so annoying! Why can't you leave me alone? I don't want your so-called 'help,' okay?_

_But you need it, _Seth protested, untruthfully.

Leah scoffed._ No, I don't. I think I know myself better than you, thanks._

_Yeah, well, we can hear your thoughts, _Jacob pointed out. _And since your thoughts are a reflection of what you currently know about yourself, then I think we can say we know you pretty well._

_… __You've been hanging around the mind-rapist leech, haven't you?_

_If you mean Edward, then yes, I have been._

_Ugh. _Edward._ I still remember when he was the bloodsucker, not _Edward,_ and you hated his guts._

_People change._

_Well, can you _change_ your mind and leave me alone?_

_Nope, no mind-changing about _that_, _Seth said cheerfully, at the same time that Jacob said, _Sorry, but it's my duty as the alpha to make sure my beta's okay. Which you're not._

Leah growled and briefly contemplated phasing back into a human, then rejected the idea. She'd be stuck in the middle of the woods with no clothes, and Seth and Jacob would find her immediately. That wasn't exactly her idea of a picnic.

_I want a picnic, _Seth commented. _I'm hungry._

_Now's not the time, Seth_. Jacob sounded… tired?

_Yeah, I haven't slept for a while, _he explained, answering her unspoken question.

_Oh, you poor kid. I know! Why don't you phase back into a human and get some sleep?_

_Nice try, Leah. Not working. Besides, I don__'t need to phase back into a human to get some sleep.  
_

_I noticed. __You're still here, aren't you?  
_

_Look, _Jacob growled, abruptly annoyed, _stop trying to change the subject. If you want to be in this pack—_Leah noticed he didn't say "_my_ pack"—_then you're going to have to deal with the bad as well as the good, and that includes us helping you even when you won't admit you need it._

_What are you, trying to be Dr. Phil or something? You're failing, just for the record._

_You and Emily and Sam should be on Dr. Phil, _Jacob snapped.

Dead silence ensued. A bird trilled somewhere in the foliage high above Leah's head.

_I'm sorry, Leah, _Jacob immediately apologized, his voice now regretful. She knew he meant it, but that didn't make the blow any less harsh. _That was uncalled for, I know. I'm sorry, _he repeated. _It's just… you weren't listening and… well, that's what Edward said, and… _his voice trailed off.

_Leah? _Seth asked, sounding alarmed. _You still there? You okay?_

_Get out of my head, _Leah bit out, and she realized her voice shook. _Huh, _she thought, detachedly. _Didn't know _mental_ voices could do that. _She decided she didn't care what Jacob and Seth thought of that.

_Sorry, Leah,_ Jacob said again, his voice now barely above a whisper. There was silence for a long time, presumably while he and Seth turned around and ran back towards the bloodsuckers' hangout, and then his presence faded from her mind.

_I'll—we'll—be here if you need it, _Seth assured her.

_Thanks, lil' bro. Scram.  
_

_Bye, Leah, _he said, and then he was gone too.

Leah stopped running at last and stood in the middle of the forest, panting. Then she curled up on the ground between two large fir trees and wondered how and why the leech—Jasper—had affected her so much with one simple look, one that had somehow said much more than the most eloquent, long-winded speech.

* * *

_Hmm. Should the second (mini-)category of this story be "Drama" or "Angst," do you think?_

_Reviews are appreciated! ^_^;_


	3. 三

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed! (I changed the "Drama" category to "Angst," by the way. Yeah.) Don't expect any more fast… ish… updates for a while, most likely… I need to get cracking on that huge history project assigned a month ago that I still haven't started yet, the one that's due next week. -_- Yay for procrastination. Oh, and exams—midyears—are coming up. Ew._

**_Inexcess:_**_ Thank you! ^_^ I try my best. xD Thanks for reviewing, too!_

_

* * *

_

"No, Seth."

"C'mon, please?"

"No."

"Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?"

"Ew, stop that. You sound like you're five years old or something."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

"Will you just shut the hell up?"

Two weeks had passed since the day when Leah… when Leah had left 6C (the leeches' house) in a rush because the stench was murdering her nostrils—she refused to believe that she had run away because something a bloodsucker said had actually affected her; no, that wouldn't do at all. Since then, Jacob had decreed that enough patrols had been run, the vampire royalty were not coming back ("Damn," he'd complained, "and I so wanted to kick their asses back to France for them, too"; "It's _Italy_," Seth had corrected, surprisingly knowledgeable on something Jacob wasn't for once), and so Leah and the rest of the pack (Jacob's) had been free to go home.

(It had been a very awkward homecoming. Leah and Seth had just barged into the house, unannounced, and Sue Clearwater, in the middle of chores in the kitchen, had dropped one of the dishes she'd been holding. Seth had had the tact to point out that it was one of her favorite plates, and then Leah had told him it was his fault for making their mother break it, and then Seth had said it was equally her fault as well, then, and then they'd started arguing, until Sue had swept over and nearly squeezed the life out of the two of them.

Very awkward indeed.)

While the Clearwater siblings' situation with patrols and their home had changed, their opinions on the vampires had not, which was thought to be unfortunate by both parties. Seth was still an avid fan of the Cullens, much to Leah's dismay. Leah still thought the bloodsuckers needed to go fuck themselves, much to Seth's dismay.

Which was why, one lazy afternoon, when Seth declared he was going to visit the Cullens and asked—no, begged—Leah to join him, she refused.

"Come _on_, Leah, please? Do me a favor?"

"Why the hell do you want me there, anyway? I won't even talk to the leeches or anything. There's no point in me going!"

"Well, then what are you going to do _here_?"

The kid had a point, Leah realized. But there was no way in hell she was going to admit that.

"I don't know, but since there's nothing to do here and nothing to do there, I might as well choose the place that stinks less!"

Seth thought a moment. "Okay, I have an idea. If you come with me to the Cullens once—just this _once_—I'll never bug you about going again."

Leah glared at her brother suspiciously. That seemed like way too good a deal for her. Something was amiss. "I highly doubt that, Seth."

"No, seriously. I'll never, ever, ever beg you to come with me again. I swear!"

"Uh-huh. No."

"I swear on Dad's grave," Seth promised, and then he flinched. Leah flinched along with him. An awkward silence followed.

"Okay, okay, whatever," Leah said quickly, just wanting the moment to be over with. Reminders of her father—and the fact that he was dead, to be more specific—were still painful. "Just… okay. Whatever."

And so Leah Clearwater found herself roped into yet another visit with the so-called "vegetarian vampires."

"Why do you call this place '6C,' anyway?" Seth wanted to know as he and his sister walked towards the Cullens' house, after they'd phased back into humans and put on some clothing (Leah had stolen another pair of Seth's old shorts and was sporting a loose T-shirt this time).

"Cullens' Cleanly Crypt of Creepy Constitutional Correctness," Leah responded promptly, and then she pondered, "Well, you know, I can call it BS Central too. Bloodsucker Central, Bullshit Central… double meaning. And it's all true. Y'know, I think I'll go with that. More profane that way."

Seth rolled his eyes and knocked on the front door of what had Leah officially dubbed BS Central instead. Sure, it took more syllables to say, but it was more exercise for the mouth, right? She hadn't gotten any of that since—

MRL (hardly a _Minimal Risk Level_ hanging out with him, though, and all of his leechy friends), Mind-Rapist Leech, coughed delicately. Leah glanced up and realized he'd been the one to open the door, and he was probably coughing at the direction her thoughts were turning. She glared at him.

"Hello, Seth; hello, Leah," he greeted them politely.

"Hey, Edward!" Seth bumped fists with the bloodsucker. Leah winced and looked away.

"Come in," MRL said, opening the door wider and moving away from the doorway. To Leah, he added, "There's no one in the room you were in last time." Then he left with Seth.

_Well, that was nice of him_, Leah realized, with some surprise, though she would never admit that out loud to anyone, and then she made a face when she heard him chuckle from somewhere ahead of her. _Stupid Mind-Rapist Leech,_ she groused to herself, and headed off for the room she'd been in last time, preparing for at least a few mind-numbingly boring hours of dirtying the bloodsuckers' room as best as she could.

However, when she reached the room, she saw the bloodstain on the couch again and remembered that she didn't want to sit in such close proximity to such a disgusting area. She hovered, uncertain, just beyond the doorway for a moment, and then a whiff of rotten, too-sweet garbage caught her attention.

She turned around and had to resist the urge to smack herself in the forehead. It was BEFL, standing in the doorway, again.

"Are you stalking me, bloodsucker?" she demanded.

He raised a blond eyebrow at her. "Hardly, mutt," was his response. "I just happen to be passing by."

Leah crossed her arms over her chest. "You're standing in the doorway. That's not exactly _passing by._"

"Well, then I was planning to come into this room. Is that better?"

Leah ground her teeth together. "I'm going to kill that mind-rapist," she muttered. He was such a liar.

"Why are you planning to kill Edward?" BEFL wanted to know.

"None of your fucking damn business, bloodsucker."

"He's my brother, dog. I'd think it's at least partially my business."

_Whoa. Déjà vu. _"Seth said you were polite," she informed him instead, ignoring his earlier comments. "I guess he was wrong. Calling people 'mutt' and 'dog' isn't exactly polite."

BEFL shrugged. "I only respond with what I'm given. Seth calls me by my name; I call him 'Seth.' You refer to me with a derogatory term; it's only fair to do the same back."

Leah glared at him. "It's still rude."

"Would you prefer me to call you by your given name then, Leah Clearwater?"

"No!" She didn't want him calling her by her name. It was too… _familiar. _And being familiar with a bloodsucker was _not_ a good thing.

"Well, then what else should I call you?"

"You should just not call me anything, because I'm never going to see you again after today," Leah explained.

The blond eyebrow went up again. "Why not?"

She debated whether or not to tell him, and decided to. She wasn't going to see him ever again, so she might as well humor him. "Because Seth promised not to beg me to come here to your little BS Central anymore after this, and there's no way I'm coming of my own free will. So I won't ever see you again after today."

"BS Central?" The leech sounded amused again.

"Bloodsucker, bullshit; both work. They're both true, in any case."

"You do realize your brother never promised to have someone else ask you to come to our house anymore, don't you?" the leech asked.

Leah _hadn't_ realized this before, but once it was mentioned, the fact hit her like a bowling ball, fast and direct and true. "Oh shit! Like Jacob could—I'm going to _kill_ that little moron!"

"There will be no killing," BEFL said, still sounding amused. "Not in this house."

Leah laughed sarcastically. "Right. Like you don't kill innocent little animals all the time."

"Not in the house," the leech pointed out.

"Right. Whatever." She moved towards the doorway but stopped short when she found it blocked by the bloodsucker, and silently cursed him for almost making her ram into him and _touch_ him. _Ew._ "Move, leech!"

"Not if you're planning to go kill your brother," the aforementioned leech said, almost absently. "I actually don't mind him, and I would prefer not to have his death on my conscience."

"Like you _have_ a conscience," Leah snapped back. "And if you do, you probably have thousands of deaths on it."

There was no response, and she suddenly found herself feeling queasy.

"No wait, don't tell me. I don't want to know," she bit out. "Just… get out of the way."

He didn't move. Leah glanced at his face, and for a moment, she felt frightened. His eyes were abnormally dark and shadowed, despite their light gold color, if that was possible, and his face was whiter than ever. Then he relaxed, ever so slightly, and his facial expression shifted into a more comfortable-looking one.

"I would have come to find you, anyway," he said, rather conversationally, completely ignoring her earlier demand.

"Oh? Great. _Move_!"

He didn't. "Yes, I would have. I wanted to apologize for whatever I said or did last time that upset you."

All thoughts of finding Seth and strangling the life out of his scrawny little neck with his intestines flew out of Leah's mind. "You didn't upset me," she spat, suddenly wanting to claw his shadowed golden eyes out. How dare he make assumptions!

"Then why did you run away?" The leech looked as if he were only humoring her. Sure enough, the subtlest signs of amusement danced in his eyes.

"Because the stench was getting to me!" Leah shot back. "Now _move,_ God fucking dammit!"

Once again, he denied her request.

_Ugh,_ Leah fumed silently, _if he's going to "humor me" about not being upset last time, why the fuck can't he "humor me" _this_ time and get out. Of. The. Freaking. Way?!_

"Your emotions say otherwise," the bloodsucker told her.

Leah gaped at him, aghast, for a moment, and then clenched her fists, hard enough that she felt her fingernails digging into her palms. There would be half-moon crescents of blood there if she continued to do so. "I thought I told you last time to stop fucking around with my emotions!" she shrieked in his face.

"Ah, so you _do_ admit there was more reason for your running away last time than the stench," BEFL noted.

Leah wondered dimly, in the back of her mind, how long it would take for her to snap and start trying to blind him. In her wolf form, preferably. "I admitted nothing of the sort! I just said that last time, I told you to stop manipulating my emotions and leave me the hell alone!"

The bloodsucker shrugged. "Believe whatever you want to believe. Your emotions still don't support your story, though."

_"Leave my emotions alone!"_

He looked a bit startled by her outburst. "I don't mean to feel your emotions," he said, so quietly that it was more like he was speaking to himself, "but it isn't like a switch you can just turn on and off."

"Yeah, Seth said exactly that," Leah found herself saying. _Argh! What the hell?! Why did I just talk to him so civilly? Next thing you know, I'll be… discussing Disney movies with him or something!_

"Did he?" BEFL quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Leah demanded.

"Doing what?"

"Stuff with your eyebrows. You're always making them move! Even your _eyebrows_ are freaky."

It was his mouth that quirked this time, and Leah realized he was trying not to laugh. "I see."

"Why am I even talking to you politely?" she snapped, more to herself than to him, but he heard her. _Damn the leeches' super-hearing. Ugh.  
_

"Well, I'd certainly say it's an improvement from last time," BEFL replied. "I rather prefer this sort of conversation."

"Yeah? Well, I don't. Can you get the hell out of my way?"

"Why?" He probably knew perfectly well why, too. _Screw him._

"Because…" Leah faltered for a moment, and then remembered what exactly she wanted to do. "I have to kill Seth. Move, leech."

"It took you a moment to remember just what you wanted to do," he pointed out. "So perhaps it's not really all that important to you after all."

"Quit analyzing everything I say or do! Can't you just take everything at face value and stop looking for the fucking motives and emotions or whatever shit behind it all?" Leah seethed.

The bloodsucker paused, obviously taken aback, and she felt a quick, brief burst of pride at being able to surprise him, and then she frowned to herself. Why was she proud she made a _bloodsucker _surprised? She shouldn't care whatsoever for bloodsuckers and what they felt.

"You know, I don't think anyone's said that to me before," BEFL pondered. "With my… ability and all, everyone expects me to use it all the time."

"Yeah, well, I don't expect you to. I just expect you to leave _my_ feelings the hell alone."

"That's a nice change of pace," the leech said, more to himself than Leah.

"That's great. I'm different from other people. Superb. Now move, leech."

"My name is Jasper Whitlock, not 'leech,'" he corrected.

Leah didn't want to say anything in response to that, but the words burst out of her mouth before she could stop them. _Word vomit. Ugh. _"I thought your last name was Hale." _Great, Clearwater! Fantastic! Now make him think you want to be his _friend_ or something!_

"That's Rosalie's last name, actually. I adopted it for our… human front, because she wanted to keep her name and we look like twins."

"Actually, you're just both blonde," Leah found herself telling him. "You don't really look alike. And by 'Rosalie' you mean Blondie, right?"

"That's what Jacob calls her, yes," BEFL agreed. "And it's true, we don't really look alike. Humans believe what we want them to, though."

"Uh, sure."

There was a silence, and then Leah's eyes suddenly widened in realization. _I just talked politely to a bloodsucker! Again! What's_ wrong_ with me?! I'm going to turn into Seth next! Speaking of Seth, I have to go kill him…_

She knew why she'd spoken to BEFL so politely, though. She'd stopped breathing through her nose a while ago, trying to ease the nasty smell and give her nostrils a break, and after some discussion with the leech, his words had seemed so… _normal_, almost, and coupled along with the lack of stench, she'd almost forgotten he was a _parasite_. One of the _enemy_.

At the same time the realization hit her, the leech spoke up again, amused once more. "You just spoke to me with no insults or profanity again. This certainly _is_ an improvement."

"Well, I'll have to fix that, won't I? Get the fuck out of my way, you emotion-screwing bloodsucker!"

His eyebrow quirked up again, for the fourth time during their conversation. _I wish he'd stop that. It's fucking freaky._ "Your words don't have as much meaning behind them as before."

"I told you to stop analyzing whatever I say or do, didn't I?" she snapped back.

"True. Since I failed to humor that request, I suppose the least I could do is humor your current one." He _finally_ stepped out of the way.

"_Thank_ you!" Leah spat at him, and hurried past him, angling her body carefully so that she wouldn't accidentally brush against him or something. Unfortunately, he moved at the same time as she did, probably trying to not brush against her as well, and she collided against his rock-hard shoulder and tripped, falling. Then his hand was out, helping her off the floor, and it took her a moment to realize she'd accepted his help and was now actually _touching_ him. She jerked her hand out of his ice-cold grasp, hating the freezing fire that he'd sent skittering down her arm from his hand.

"Don't _touch_ me, bloodsucker," she hissed, backing away.

He did not look offended. If anything, he looked _amused. Again._ _Ugh! Is it a _requirement_ or something for leeches to be so damn annoying?!_ "I'll see you around, Leah Clearwater," he said, as soon as her back was turned.

She whipped around again. "What?! No, you won't! And don't call me that!"

He only smirked at her in reply.

_Ugh. Stupid damn annoying leeches,_ Leah groused to herself. Oh, well. She didn't have time to think about him and how annoying he was anymore, she remembered—there were little brothers (and quite possibly mind-rapist leeches) to kill.

* * *

_Would anyone like to tell me if Quil and Embry joined Jacob's pack at the end of Breaking Dawn? In just about all the post-BD fanfics I've read on this site, they all have Quil and Embry in Jake's pack, but I don't recall that from the books. (However, I read pretty fast, and tend to miss a lot of details, so maybe it /did/ happen in the books and I just missed it. Would anybody like to tell me?)_

_Reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated! Flames would be too, because I've never gotten one before, so I'd really like to know if my feelings would be hurt or not. xD Feel free to flame, but only if you hated it. If you liked it, then don't flame. =P Thanks for reading, all~_


	4. 四

_Hey everyone. Sorry I haven't updated in a while; I did say that updates will start to slow down. (Exams coming next week and the week after that. Ew. Not to mention I have to start that huge project due in two days. Urrrgh. I have the most important parts of it, too. Also, I had a bit of writers' block with this chapter. I had to rewrite it a few times; it just wasn't coming out right, and I'm still not totally pleased with it, but whatever. Also, I'm working on some new stories… I totally wouldn't, except the ideas for them are beating me up and will continue to do so if I don't post stories about them. So I have to. Yeah.) I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed for reviewing! :D _

_Most people said Quil and Embry are in Jake's pack, so I'm going with that. _

_If you like this story, or Leah/Jasper friendship fics in general (besides Cowboys & Indians by **Minisinoo** ;D), I recommend reading Dueling Banjos by **Cat of Kilkenny**—it's a (recently) completed Leah/Jasper friendship fic, and it's really good, better than this story. :D You should totally check that out._

**_Jacob Black's Girl:_**_ Aw, thanks. :) I'm glad you like it so far. So far, those are only the main characters because Leah doesn't exactly hang out with any of the other vampires or anything, and this is in Leah's (third person) point of view. She doesn't really like thinking about them, either. x3 We'll see about Leah and Jasper getting together in this story. It's very unlikely, sorry, but I do have some ideas for a (different/separate) Leah/Jasper romance chaptered fic. Thanks again, and for reviewing as well! :D_

_Rather long-ish important-ish author's note at the bottom of the page._

_

* * *

_

_This is so _stupid, Leah complained, for exactly the forty-seventh time that hour.

_Leah…_ Embry warned. His voice had been humoring and partially patient the first time she'd voiced dissatisfaction, much like a parent amused by their child's silly antics, but after his patrolling partner had repeated the same exact phrase over and over for the past hour or so, he'd grown steadily more and more annoyed.

_Yes?_ Leah inquired, injecting as much acid as she possibly could into that single syllable, just to annoy him further.

The acid never failed. _Leah_, Embry growled, _we're freaking _patrolling _here. It's for a _reason.

She snorted, or made a sound that was the wolf equivalent of a snort. _Right, _she mocked. _Because we totally _haven't_ been patrolling for no reason at all for the past few weeks, right?_

_Leah, can you just shut the hell up?_

_No,_ Leah returned, deliberately and obnoxiously (and falsely) cheerful. _This _is_ stupid._

_You are so freaking annoying_, Embry informed her.

_I sympathize,_ Leah said, sarcastically. _I have to live with myself too, you know._

His surprised bark of laughter echoed through the trees, startling a few birds high above into flapping away in a whirl of wings and leaves. _At least you admit it,_ he noted.

_I admit nothing_, Leah sniffed.

_Just like you'll never_ admit_ that Seth tricked you last week, even though he so totally did?_

Leah snapped her bare teeth at the empty air in front of her, wishing it were Embry Call's exposed human neck. Jacob had prevented her from killing her little brother last week, unfortunately, which meant that the little twit had survived to tell the tale of how he'd been oh-so-clever and fooled his older sister into believing she never had to come back to BS Central again. (According to the kid, he hadn't _meant_ to trick her; he'd just thought Leah would become great friends with one of the leeches and _want_ to go back to 6C—she was alternating between the two names she'd come up with for the Cullens' house; both were too cool not to be used, in her opinion—of her own accord or something. As if.) Embry had never been Leah's best friend or anything, and he took great pleasure in anything that even remotely slighted her, no matter how small. Regrettably, Seth's tricking of his older sister fell into this category of Embry's.

Speaking of the jackass, he was talking again now. _Aw_, he crooned, his falsetto mocking, _have I touched a nerve there?_

_Go fuck yourself, _Leah shot back. _Oh wait—it's not long enough to reach. My bad._

Embry made a sort of hacking, choking noise in the back of his throat—Leah's sensitive wolf hearing picked it up from all the way across half the forest. _The hell, Leah?!_ he demanded, between fits of wolfy coughing. _That's _sick_!! _There was a pause, and when he spoke again, his tone was suspicious. _Were you looking?_

_Don't flatter yourself, _Leah snorted.

A cool wind blew across the forest, and carried with it a nauseating scent of rotten, perfumed garbage. It tickled Leah's nose unpleasantly, quickly took up residence there, and refused to leave. Her hackles rose. She recognized that scent. _Bloodsucker._

_Do you smell that?_ she asked Embry.

_Ugh. Yes. _His presence in her mind grew slightly excited. _I haven't kicked any bloodsucker ass in a while. This'll be fun. Get ready. Where are you?_

_You males are all the same. Zombies of violence_, Leah grumbled. _Don't get too hyped up_, she added, giving him fair warning. _It's probably just one of those foreign leeches. Some of them are _still_ hanging around. And we're not allowed to kill those._

She heard Embry sniff the air from their mind-link. _Dang. Probably is. It smells familiar. They're almost encroaching on Quileute territory, though. _

_There's practically no difference anymore, _Leah pointed out. _Ever since Mr. Alpha imprinted on that demon spawn, he's always over at BS Central, and since we're part of _his_ pack, we're all over the place when patrolling.  
_

_BS Central? Ha! _Embry laughed. _Does that stand for bloodsucker or bullshit?_

_Both. The letters are multi-tasking._

The wind wafted through the forest again, and the stench of bloodsucker assaulted Leah once more. Embry whimpered from halfway across the forest. _Ew. It's getting closer. Is the leech hunting or something?_

_Dunno. If it is, that might mean it's planning on taking up a permanent residence. _That_ would suck balls._

_Yeah. One coven of them's way more than enough._

The smell of rotting garbage blew past on the wind again, even stronger than before, and Leah realized it seemed familiar… _Oh_, she said, disappointed. _It's one of the leeches already with a permanent residence. _She recognized the scent after being around them for so much during the past few weeks, though she couldn't tell exactly which one it was—the scents mixed together and soon became equally repulsive (possibly MRL or his wife a bit more repulsive than normal). _Damn._ She'd been itching for some action, too, especially after how much a_ certain bloodsucker_ had been annoying her lately…

_What? You were hanging out with bloodsuckers?_ Embry's surprised voice echoed in her mind. _Ew, you're not turning into Seth or something, are you?_

_What?! No! Don't insinuate stuff like that! _

_Then why were you hanging out with a bloodsucker?_

_The freaking BEFL was bothering me, that's all! It's nothing. Shut the hell up and get back to your patrol, kid._

_Kid? I'm taller than you. And BEFL? What the hell? … hey, that rhymed, _he noticed, before continuing his little spiel. _Wait… BEFL? Blonde Emotion-Fucking Leech? _Embry nearly choked on his own laughter. Leah wished he would _literally_ choke. And preferably die, too. Painfully. _You gave the leech a little nickname? How cute, _he mocked. _That's so juvenile. Or maybe you liiiiike him…_

_Bastard,_ Leah scowled. _Oh, wait—you really are one. Guess it's not much of an insult then when it's true, huh?_

_You're such a bitch, _Embry scowled right back. _But it's literal in your case, too, so I guess it's not much of an insult either, huh?_

_Shut up, Embryo. Huh. Bastard 'bryo. Has a nice ring to it. Alliteration and all that._

_You just shut the hell up, Leah, _Embry said, sounding miffed._ The bloodsucker's somewhere near you; I hope he sucks your blooooood… _This last bit was said in what the speaker clearly thought was a good Transylvanian (or something similar to that) accent. He'd always been a bit of a goofball, underneath his quiet and reserved exterior.

Leah let loose a string of expletives, ignoring the blood-sucking comment. She realized she'd gotten so caught up in insulting her fellow pack member, she'd forgotten about the leech running around in the vicinity. Just because none of the bloodsuckers around for the past few months (not counting the vampire royalty who'd come around a few weeks or so ago, of course) had been eligible for killing didn't mean she was supposed to start forgetting that they were the _enemies_.

_Ha, little Leah needs a lesson from Miss Clearwater in life, _Embry commented derisively.

Leah ignored him, because she suddenly found herself face-to-face—not quite literally, but close enough—with the leech who was running around close to Quileute territory. And of course, just as luck would have it, it turned out to be BEFL. _Of course. Fate just likes to bite me in the ass._

_No, your boyfriend does—__speaking of him, there he is! _Embry said, with some surprise. _You do know he's cheating on you with his wife, right? _he snickered.

Leah wished she had the time to shoot a witty comeback at the annoying shape-shifter/werewolf, but she was too distracted by the blood and scars that patterned BEFL's face.

The blood was dried by now, just a few faint smears of red across his face. The scars were much more prominent—little feathery half-moon crescents dancing all over his jaw and neck like sick decorations. They were too faint for her human eyes to see; only visible to Leah when she was a wolf, they screamed even more danger than a normal vampire's face did. She'd always known they were there, ever since she'd first phased and been told about the Cullens, and then when she saw them in wolf form for the first time, but it still came as a slight shock. _I wonder if he feels that__—our emotions when we__'__re wolves,_ something in the back of Leah's mind wondered.

She took stock of herself again, growled and curled her paws into the ground, and he slowed his run into a slightly defensive crouch. "Hello," he greeted her carefully, and his smooth voice was cautious and wary. "I thought I smelled a wolf around here."

_How the hell did I miss him _so freaking close_ to me?! _Leah berated herself. _Screw Jacob. Screw him to the depths of hell, and then back just so I can kick his idiotic ass there again. _It was _his_ fault for making her nose start to become desensitized to the smell. Him and his stupid demon spawn imprint.

_It's just your fault, Leah,_ Embry corrected her. _Don't try to pin the blame on Jake._

Leah ignored him again; BEFL was talking. Again.

"Leah Clearwater, correct?" he asked, taking in her small gray wolf form with liquid bright golden eyes… clearly, he'd been hunting. (Of course, the dried blood on his face was already indication enough.) He shifted his position again, so that he was backed away a bit more, angled towards an easy escape through the trees. "I thought you said you were never going to see me again," the leech continued.

_The fucker,_ Leah fumed. _Rubbing it in my face like that._

"Patrolling?" BEFL inquired pleasantly.

_I wonder why he keeps talking to you, _Embry mused. _Seth and Jake both say that leech never really says anything. Ooh, maybe he's getting tired of his wife… maybe he wants someone almost as tall as him to—_

_EMBRY CALL, YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP _RIGHT NOW_ IF YOU DON'T WISH TO BE CASTRATED ON THE SPOT! AND I'LL GET THE LEECH TO EXSANGUINATE YOU, TOO!_

_But we're not even in the same spot, _he pointed out reasonably.

Leah screamed wordlessly and dashed off into a copse of fir trees. _Hey, _Embry said, his tone turning pointed and responsible, _we're supposed to be patrolling right now—_

_Screw patrolling. _Fumbling with the bag tied around her ankle, Leah phased back into a human, pulled on a T-shirt and pair of shorts as fast as she possibly could, then ran back into the miniscule clearing BEFL still crouched in. She wanted to be able to yell at him in words, and having Embry out of her hair (or head) was always a plus. "Damn it, you motherfucker, why the hell are you stalking me?" was the first thing she shrieked as she emerged.

BEFL relaxed visibly, obviously deeming her no longer a threat as a human. "I'm not stalking you," he said, sounding as if he were stating a fact of life, like the water was blue because it reflected the sky or something. It made Leah want to throttle him, though of course that was impossible. _Stupid bloodsuckers. _"And I must say I've never participated in sexual activities of any kind with anybody's maternal figure," he added, thoughtfully.

"It was an insult! Get _over_ yourself! And this is the third time you just _happen_ to show up where I am! What are you doing then, if you're not stalking me? Goddammit, you have a freaking wife already!"

"The first and second times were merely coincidental," the leech explained, still patient to a fault. "And there's no need for you to worry; I have absolutely no romantic interest in you." Leah's fingers itched with repressing the urge to hit him and smack that almost-condescending look off his face. Then again, maybe that wasn't condescension; she wasn't the best at reading emotions (unlike _some_ people…or rather, leeches). After all, she'd though Sam had—

_Shit. Sam._ After all that had happened, it _still_ hurt to think his name. _Shitshitshit. I just _had_ to think about _that_ issue now—  
_

Suddenly, she felt a wave of inexplicable calm wash over her. Why was she thinking about _him_ at a time like this, anyway? It was just her and—

The realization hit her at the same time Embry vaulted into the clearing, snarling. She ignored him in favor of the BEFL. "Could you stop screwing around with my emotions, please?" she requested.

The calm disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and Leah's anger returned, only double the force. "I _told_ you to not fuck around with my feelings!" she shouted, feeling more furious than she'd thought she would. She jabbed a finger in his infuriatingly calm face and glared again, harder than before.

"That was the first time I did so," BEFL said, almost regretfully. Leah wasn't fooled. "Your emotions were—"

_"JUST LEAVE MY EMOTIONS ALONE, WILL YOU?!"_

A few birds took off into the sky at her scream. Embry winced from where he crouched low over the ground, teeth still bared in a snarl at the bloodsucker.

"Embry, go the hell away." He shot her what was obviously—even in wolf form—an incredulous look. "I said _go_!"

He seemed almost offended. She could practically hear his thoughts: _You're supposed to be patrolling!_

"I don't care," she spat. "Go away."

Embry loped away, shooting into a full-out run once he was beyond the small clearing Leah and Jasper stood in. She heard his paws pounding the ground like a drum, quickly fading away into the distance.

She turned and glared at the bloodsucker, as venomously as she could. At least he looked properly abashed. "You're obviously stalking me, even though you say you aren't," she began, in a deceptively calm voice. "I told you to not screw around with my emotions at least three times, I think. _Yet you still are!!_" Her voice rose to a shriek in the end, revealing—unfortunately—to the bloodsucker that she wasn't as calm as she first appeared.

His face was passive and emotionless, and his bright golden eyes swirled with an almost demonic light. "I can't help feeling people's emotions, though I did try my best not to manipulate them," he said. "You were always bordering on an almost hysterical hurt, and it only grew when you pushed it away. I was trying to prevent it from spilling over right now—"

"So let it spill over, then! Isn't that what therapists always tell you to do, let your emotions out?! I don't care if I'm going to… whatever! I'd rather have _that_ than have _you_ trying to 'help'!!"

Leah breathed loudly after her outburst, and then she suddenly realized she'd just been more honest about her feelings with a _leech,_ BEFL of all people, than she'd ever been with her mother, Seth, Jacob, or even… she forced herself to think it: her father. After _Sam_, anyway. She didn't even know why. There was just something _about_ him. The stupid leech was just too persuasive or charismatic or something—_hell, maybe he__'s screwing around with my emotions right now and that__'s why I__'m telling him stuff! _The idea was maddening.

"Ugh!" Leah screeched, in frustration, and kicked at a rock on the ground. It went spiraling into the copse of trees Embry had just disappeared through.

BEFL himself said nothing, just stood there and watched her carefully.

_Okay. Breathe, Leah. Calm. Pretend nothing just happened. Take a deep breath._

"So, if you're not stalking me, then why are you here?"

"I was hunting." Leah then noticed that the dried blood on his face was gone. Distractedly, in the back of her mind, she wondered where it had gone (there wasn't any blood on his hands or anything), but she pushed the errant thought away.

"Oh? Just when Embry and I happened to be patrolling?"

"Alice did mention my future disappeared for half an hour or so yesterday," the leech commented offhandedly. "I didn't think much of it at the time… I suppose it's because—"

"_Half an hour?!_ Has it been half an hour yet? If not, does that mean I'm stuck here with you for another half hour?" Leah groaned. _There is no way in hell I'm staying anywhere with _him_ any longer than I have to. No way in freaking _hell_._

"Of course not," the leech said, causing Leah to raise an eyebrow at him… the first time she'd done it to him, and not the other way around, if she recalled correctly. "If you believe you're 'stuck here with me,' so to speak, and you stay here because of that, Alice's vision—or lack thereof—would become a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. Her visions are based on decisions; if you decide to leave right now then—"

"Great. I already know about that," Leah interrupted, not in the mood to hear him explain anything else. "So I can just leave right now?"

There was a pause. "Yes," BEFL finally answered. "You may."

"Great. In that case, I'll be going. I have patrol duties, you see," Leah said, tone frosty.

"Jacob is still making you patrol around this area?" he asked.

Leah eyed him warily. "Yes. You're almost on Quileute lands, by the way," she told him. _… now why did I just say that?_

"I am aware of that; I don't plan on crossing the border. Thank you for the warning, though."

"You're welcome, I guess."

A heartbeat passed, and Leah blinked. It dawned upon her that it was getting harder and harder to remain rude to the bloodsucker every time they spoke, probably he was always so polite to her. It was a rather aggravating notion.

"So… bye."

"Good-bye, Leah Clearwater," was his response.

Leah was aware that she should yell at him for using her name. She should yell at him some more for messing with her emotions just then. But somehow, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

She walked away to phase instead. No doubt Embry had already blabbed to Jacob about Leah's uncooperativeness with their patrols or something. _Stupid bastard._

Jasper's eyes followed her thoughtfully as she left.

* * *

**_IMPORTANT! _**_Kinda. A few people have asked about this story being romance, and right now, I'm leaning on no, mostly 'cause it just doesn't feel right for this story. Sorry. _

_Anyways, I really don't want Diamonds in the Rough to be romance, basically, but if I get an overwhelming majority of people wanting it, then I guess I can acquiesce. I put up a poll for that on my profile; go vote now if you'd like~ :D_

_Also, does Jasper feel the emotions of the shape-shifters/werewolves when they're in wolf form? Sorry for asking all these questions, haha. xD Just wondering. Thanks for reading. _

_Crap. I totally had something important to say, and I forgot. Screw short-term memories._


	5. 五

_Keep those reviews coming! :D Haha. Thanks for reviewing, to everybody who did~_

_First day of exams today. I aced my Chinese one (probably 'cause Chinese was my first language :P) and failed my history one. I probably should have studied for history. I probably shouldn't have sat at my desk and recited pi (I've got exactly 150 digits memorized now; 151 if you include the 3 at the beginning :D) and thought of fanfiction (ideas) instead of writing my essays. Hm. Probably. I hope I passed._

_… my dad's going to murder me for failing history, if I do, so if I suddenly disappear off the face of the earth (or fanfiction), you'll know where I've gone. (To the underworld. Or whatever.)_

_I've started some new stories… by the time they're all posted, I'll have at least ten stories up. x_x Just to let you all know, if you're interested. All werewolf (excuse me, /shape-shifter/)-centered. Yeah._

_I've edited the past four chapters a little bit. Nothing much as changed; I just deleted some stuff here and added others there, etc. There's no need for you to reread the past few chapters, but if you want to, I'm not stopping you. xP The most noticeable change would be in chapter four; I added some observations (from Leah, obviously) about Jasper's scars. I originally wanted to do that, but I forgot to do so when I wrote the chapter, so I just added it. xD Yeah. _

_For anyone wondering: This is a Leah/Jasper (friendship) fic, so that's why all these random little situations in each chapter skip some days or weeks and then go right to Leah and Jasper interacting. What's the point of a Leah/Jasper friendship fic without Jasper in it, right? This is set a few days—like, two or three—after the last chapter, if anyone's wondering. That's not really important, so it doesn't really matter, but yeah._

_Ew, I almost took up a whole page on Microsoft Word with my babbling. x_o (I usually do. Ugh.) I'll quit it now and get on with the chapter. Hope you like it! It's one of my favorites. :P In terms of events, anyway. I'm not too sure about the actual writing itself…It kinda sucks. x_x It was the best I could do, though._

_

* * *

_

Leah decided, right then and there, that she and Alice Cullen would never become friends.

The thought randomly popped up in her head as she dragged her feet into yet _another_ store, the fifth one in almost as many hours. She and Jacob had taken the day off (it had been rather hard to drag her alpha away from his precious little Leech Spawn, but she'd managed; it had taken quite some convincing on her part a few days ago, though) to visit Port Angeles and shop around, searching for a suitable present for Seth's fifteenth birthday. Despite the fact that the outing had been her idea, however, Leah was beginning to seriously regret it. Her feet ached. She was hungry. She almost felt as if she'd rather talk to the mind-rapist leech about global warming or something than continue to torture herself with shopping (because really, what did six-foot-tall teenage werewolf/shape-shifter boys want, anyway?). If she ever had to look at one more price tag again, _ever_, she would scream.

How the little psychic leech could stand it (besides being an indestructible bloodsucker, of course, but it was more an issue of getting mentally tired than physically), Leah would never know. She'd already started tiring of "shopping" (because really, she and Jacob hadn't bought a single thing yet so far) by the end of the first store, and now that she was in the fifth, a sporting goods outlet, she could feel herself slowly but gradually turning insane.

Jacob had no such qualms; he was observing a baseball glove in what looked like genuine interest. "Hey, the Cullens like baseball," he commented, fingering the leather. "I think I saw a glove like this one in their garage or something; it's a really good make—"

"Jacob." Leah forced the words out through clenched teeth. "We are not here to shop for the leeches."

"I'm just _saying_." Jacob replaced the glove and turned to her, his dark eyes scrutinizing. "You look really pissed."

"Do I?" Leah asked, voice sullen.

"Yeah. Getting sick of shopping? It was _your_ idea, you know."

"Thank for pointing that out, Mr. Alpha."

"You're welcome, Miss Beta," Jacob returned easily, in that oh-so-cheerful way only he (post-imprint), Seth, anime characters, and Disney Channel stars could pull off. It always sounded wrong whenever someone else tried. "It's kind of funny, you know. I originally didn't want to come, and you did, but now you're bored to death and I'm not. Ironic, huh?"

"Guess fate just hates me," Leah mumbled.

"Guess so." Jacob didn't seem to notice the double meaning laced behind her words.

There was a slightly awkward pause, and then he spoke again.

"So, you don't think Seth wants anything here?"

"He's one of the few testosterone-fueled people who aren't completely obsessed with sports," Leah said. "Playing them, anyway. So… probably not."

Jacob threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. "Why did we even come here, then?"

"Well, where else were we supposed to go?" Leah shot back. "We've already been to"—she ticked them off on her fingers—"a clothing outlet,—that place smelled like shit, by the way—a music store, a bookstore, and an electronics shop. Where else are we going to go? A flea market?"

"What did you buy him last year, then?"

"Some video game," Leah said. "I haven't seen him play a single one since he phased."

There was another awkward pause.

"Well, this is just great," Jacob declared, running a hand through his hair in agitation. He didn't seem to notice the salesgirl behind the counter eyeing him approvingly, though Leah did, and it annoyed her. (Any girl who liked to ogle people shamelessly in public was on her blacklist.) "Just freaking great. _Now_ what?"

"How should I know?"

"Come _on_, Leah, it was _your_ idea to come shopping in the first place! You didn't even have the _slightest_ idea of what to buy him? Chrissake, he's _your_ brother; _you_ should know!"

"Well, I've always gotten him a present before, and his birthday's next week." Leah was starting to get fed up. "This was the only chance I could find to get you away from your Leech Spawn, anyway."

"Don't call Nessie that!" Jacob snapped, his eyes flashing. Clearly, she'd called his imprint a leech spawn one time too many.

"Sorry," she bit out.

Another awkward silence ensued, and Leah had to wonder if today wasn't National Awkward Silences Day. "I'm hungry," she finally muttered. "I have some money; I'm going to find a café or something. Bye."

"See you back at La Push or whatever," Jacob muttered back, unwilling to forgive so easily. It was a bit unlike him, but then again, he hadn't really gotten properly angry in quite a while… since he'd imprinted, really. Leah supposed his sudden bout of anger was long overdue.

"You taking the car?" 'The car' was an Aston Martin Vanquish, one of the Cullens' many expensive and flashy vehicles. Coincidentally, it had been Jacob's getaway vehicle a few months ago, only he'd been getting away from the Cullens that time. _Now he's getting away from me. So I have something in common with the leeches now, huh? Wow, my life just gets better and better with every passing day._

"You want it?" Jacob asked.

"No."

"Then I'll take it."

"'Kay. Bye." Leah turned and hurried out of the store, Jacob not-so-hot on her heels. The salesgirl's hopeful expression vanished as the two breezed past her and out, turning opposite ways down the street.

Leah hadn't been to Port Angeles many times before, but she'd seen enough of the city to generally know how to navigate it. There was a small café two streets down, in fact, from the sporting goods store she'd just exited, and she headed there, digging in the pockets of her jeans for some money. She came up with a wad of crumpled twenties, and she stuck all of them but one back into her pocket.

The café was a small, rather shabby little place, but tidy enough. Booths were lined up along the walls, with rounded tables in the center of the floor. The air had a sweet, cloying scent to it, like too much perfume or something; silver bells or wind chimes hanging from the door tinkled as Leah entered. A red-haired waitress or hostess or someone (Leah had never been good with titles) with a thin, sallow face accosted her the moment she stepped through the door.

The girl, who looked to be either in her late teens or early twenties, around Leah's age, studied her with a critical eye. "You Leah Clearwater?" she demanded, her strange, unidentifiable accent rough and twisted.

Leah later looked back on the incident and thought that she should have _known_. Warning bells even went off in her head, then. She ignored them, though; she was too startled by the girl's words, mainly the use of her name. "Um… yes," was Leah's reply to the question.

Before she could get out the question _she_ wanted to ask, the girl spoke again. "Over there," she grunted, jabbing a finger at one of the booths against the wall, this one in the far back corner of the room. Then she brusquely handed Leah a menu and departed.

Rather bewildered, Leah accepted the menu and headed towards the booth that had been pointed out to her. She hadn't taken many steps until she smelled the all-too-familiar scent of rotten perfume—_so _that's_ why the café smells like shit_, she realized, rather belatedly—and then the person sitting in the booth came into view.

The only thing keeping Leah from screaming profanities or jumping at him was the quiet talking in the background—the voices reminded her that she was in public. They kept her grounded; it wouldn't do much good to cause a scene.

So instead, she quietly slid into the booth, stared BEFL straight in the eye, and snarled, "Don't you dare try to tell me you're not stalking me _now_. If you do, I really am going to kill you, and your wife'll be sleeping alone tonight."

He flashed her a slight smile, almost lazy. "Hello, Leah Clearwater," he replied. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Vampires don't sleep."

The answer was somehow so typical of him, Leah dropped her head in her hands with a groan and proceeded to bang her head against the table a few times. "Ugh, why are you following me everywhere, anyway?" she demanded, between bangs. "What's so" _bang_ "special about" _bang_ "me?" _bang. _"Isn't your" _bang_ "wife" _bang_ "suspicious?"_ …bang_.

She knew he was smirking again, even without having to look up at his face. _Damn him to hell. Well… damn him more. _(After all, vampires were supposedly eternally damned, or something.)

"I love Alice. I'm almost 150 years older than you. I'm a vampire. According to Edward, you think I smell like rotting perfume. I really don't think she has anything to be suspicious about. I'd suggest you stop banging your head against the table; it wouldn't be wise to give yourself a concussion."

"Werewolf, remember?" Leah reminded him. "Or shape-shifter. Whatever. Hard head and all that." _According to Edward, he said… he hasn't been _asking_ the mind-rapist to poke around my head, has he?!_ (For his sake, she sincerely hoped not. Though she probably wouldn't mind kicking some bloodsucker ass…)

"True," he agreed.

"So," she snapped, after a rather awkward silence (yes, she decided, today definitely had to be National Awkward Silences Day; it just _had_ to), sitting up and leaning back against the cushioned red seat. "Tell me exactly why you're stalking me."

"Well, I would say I'm not, but I have no doubt you'd make do on your threat, and I prefer to live for now, thank you," he responded, voice casual, as if he were commenting on the beautiful weather (it wasn't beautiful, though; it was overcast again… which was probably why he dared to go out in public today)."I'm in Port Angeles with Alice, and she's gone shopping for now, to 'give me some privacy,' as she put it. I believe she left me here with you, though."

"But… what? Why?" Leah found she couldn't formulate a proper reply, especially not a scathing or insulting one, and it made her want to kick herself. She'd already filled her pain quota of the day from the head-banging on the table previously, though, so she refrained. "And… you were just here with Alice?"

The man sitting opposite her smiled slightly, though she wasn't sure why. "Apparently, my future disappeared after a little while in the café. Alice said she overheard you convincing Jacob to go shopping with you for a present for your brother, coincidentally the same day she and I planned to go to Port Angeles, and so she put two and two together and left me alone here to spend some time with you, apparently."

Leah suddenly remembered the way his eyebrows had kept quirking up one of the times they'd had a conversation, for some reason, and she couldn't help thinking that if any other male had just made that comment, said male would probably have waggled their eyebrows suggestively or something when saying that. It was a strange thought to have at a time like this, especially since the actual male she was currently speaking to had just revealed that it was partially her fault that she was _with_ said male in the first place. _If that makes sense…_

_… Shit. _She'd practically been yelling at Jacob to go shopping with her for Seth that day, a few days ago, when she'd been trying to convince him to leave the spawn for a little bit… her yelling had apparently enabled _certain people_ to hear their conversation, although there hadn't really been any point in yelling. _And the shopping didn't turn out too well, either…_

She would never admit that the whole incident was partially her fault, though. Not when there were other _certain people_ to blame.

Especially since it had been revealed that Captain Scarface had decided to follow through with his wife's visions, instead of just leaving Leah the hell alone like he _should_ have done.

So she kept silent after BEFL's admission, saying nothing, only staring determinedly at the table.

Just when the silence was turning awkward (yet _again_), a waitress flounced up to their booth. Leah looked up; it was a different girl from the last one, the one who'd pointed Leah out to her seat. _This_ girl was tall, curvy, blonde, and batting her eyelashes prettily at Jasper.

Leah swiveled around to watch her companion's reaction. To his credit, he didn't so much as even blink.

"May I get you anything, sir?" the blonde girl practically purred, thrusting her chest at his face. Leah wrinkled her nose in distaste.

_Just some blood, please; any animal kind, "vegetarian," even though animals aren't vegetables and so that's a really ridiculous thing to call it._

"Three coffees," the drinker of blood (though he hadn't _ordered _any blood, apparently; Leah thought it would have been funny if he had, just to see the flirty waitress's reaction) intoned, ignoring the bosom shoved in his sight.

The waitress pouted. "That's all?" She then peered suspiciously at the booth she was serving, which only had two people sitting in it, though it was meant for four; Leah realized that at about the same time the waitress did. "There's only you and her," the girl pointed out, still talking to Jasper and Jasper only. _Wow, she's a smart one_, Leah thought sarcastically, feeling amused by the girl's "sudden" discovery. "Who's the third party?"

"My wife." The blonde vampire handed the menus back to the waitress. "Thank you." She stomped off, still pouting and now looking extremely disgruntled.

Leah snickered.

"That wasn't funny," BEFL said, frowning.

"Oh, come on. It so totally was."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was."

"No, it wasn't."

"Just because you're a bloodsucker and have no sense of humor…"

Leah trailed off as the sudden realization of her words hit her with the force of a wrecking ball. She was being polite. To a bloodsucker. She was _joking around_. With a bloodsucker. She was being _friendly._ To a bloodsucker.

_Shit, what happened?_

Leah found she couldn't even blame the lack of scent anymore—the stench of leech swirled around her in the air, the cloying smell clogging her nose and sneaking up her throat. And yet, somehow, she'd forgotten about it.

_But… how?_

_… Jesus fucking Christ._

"You know," BEFL commented, interrupting Leah's reverie, "Edward said the night he told Bella he was a vampire and could read minds, he had dinner with her in a restaurant in Port Angeles, and apparently, the waitress was having inappropriate thoughts about him."

Leah blinked, and quickly pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind. She would deal with them later. "The mind-rapist ate dinner?" she asked, ignoring all else he'd said for the time being. "I thought you leeches couldn't eat." _Good, Leah, call him a leech or whatever. Name-calling is good._

"We can." BEFL grimaced. "It just doesn't taste very good, and we can't… digest it."

"Oh." The full force of what she'd just been told hit her then. "Ew."

"Yes, quite. The night Edward told Bella of his status as a member of the undead, she admitted her love for him as well, or something to that extent."

Leah blinked again. Once. Twice. "I really hope you aren't insinuating something."

BEFL grinned, amused. "No, it was merely an observation."

"Great." Leah sighed. "Well, I'm not going to be admitting any love for you anytime soon, and I'm pretty sure the same goes for you; and I already know you're a freak and you already know I'm a freak, so I'm glad we've got _that_ obstacle cleared."

BEFL looked immensely pleased at her words, for some reason. "What?" Leah snapped.

"Nothing."

The blonde waitress came over again, holding a bronze tray with three steaming cups of coffee on it. "Here you go, sir," she declared, setting the tray down and handing a coffee cup to Jasper delicately, clearly over the fact that he was married; she'd probably decided it didn't matter. Then she put the other two coffees down on the table none-too-gently, shot Jasper a sultry smile, and sauntered away.

"You're not even going to drink that," Leah said, as if the waitress had never come at all (besides the arrival of the drinks, though), pointing at the cup of coffee her companion now held in one pale hand. "And neither is your wife. That's a waste of perfectly good coffee."

"You take it, then," Jasper said, offering the cup to her.

Leah shrugged and blew on her own coffee.

"Speaking of your wife, she likes shopping," she stated.

"I know she does." There went the blonde eyebrow again, quirking upwards as it had so many times before. "What of it?"

"She and I would never be friends, then. I hate shopping."

"… I see."

"Yup."

There was a pause, but this one wasn't very awkward.

"So you were thinking about becoming friends with her?" Jasper suddenly asked.

Leah, who'd just taken a sip of her drink, nearly spat it out. She swallowed it violently instead, spent the next few minutes coughing and choking, and then her throat cooled down long enough for her to gasp, "You're deluded. I don't become _friends_ with _bloodsuckers_."

"I would say something about your emotions not completely supporting your words, but I like my existence," Jasper said lightly.

"Damn straight."

Leah was too busy reaching for a napkin to notice the pleased smile that flitted across his face.

* * *

_Yay for you if you made it down here. :)_

_This chapter was supposed to be longer… longer in terms of events, not words. But since this chapter's already a good 3,500+ words, I decided to stop here. Whoot whoot._

_Should I change the "Angst" category to "Hurt/Comfort"? xP_

_Also, about what time would this (story) be set in? (I mean, apparently, it was September when Nessie was born and everything, and then there was that whole issue with the Volturi during which a few months passed, I think… so what would it be now, around the end of BD—December? January? ~In which case it's winter, and I haven't mentioned it at all. xD But werewolves and vampires don't really get cold—not that cold, anyway, in the werewolves'/shape-shifters' case—from snow and stuff… Yeah.) Just wondering. (Again.)_

_ALSO, since werewolves (the shape-shifter ones) run on high temperatures, would they burn their tongues on coffee or anything? xPP_

_Sorry for all these questions. xD And sorry my author__'s notes were so long this chapter.  
_

_About the poll on whether or not this story should be Leah/Jasper romance or not: I'm closing it right before the next chapter is posted, and posting the results in the next chapter, so if you haven't voted yet and would like to, go do it. Sometime soon. :D_

_Thanks for reading; reviews are very much appreciated. :)_


	6. 六

_I feel like shit today, but I still totally freaking pwned on my Latin and science exams. Whoo. (Too bad the same can't be said for history and English… not enough time, argh.)_

_Happy Chinese New Year, everybody~ (Year of the Ox, yeah?) I got $100 yesterday. Yay._

_The results for the poll are in, and shown on my profile. No romance. It won by a lot, sort of. Sorry if you wanted romance, but at least you can still read friendship. (Most people who don't want romance probably wouldn't read it if it turned into romance.) And there're other Leah/Jasper romance stories around._

_Um, yeah. I'll just shut the fuck up now._

_

* * *

_

"So, why don't you become 'friends' with 'bloodsuckers?" Jasper asked.

Five minutes had passed before either of them had spoken. Leah sipped at her coffee, wondering why she hadn't gotten up and left already. She wanted to believe it was because she was too tired from walking around "shopping" for hours, and was therefore unable to phase and run all the way back to La Push yet, but something told her that wasn't it. Jasper fiddled with the napkin organizer on the table, folding and unfolding the napkins, smoothing out creases, stacking them. Then he'd asked his question.

"Because," Leah answered, staring at the tiled floor pattern, a mixture of blues and greens and grays, "we're not supposed to." The colors swirled in her vision.

"Who's 'we'?" Jasper only sounded mildly interested, someone asking just to be polite. Leah's hand tightened on her cup of coffee.

"Us. Werewolves. Or shape-shifters. Whatever."

"So, you don't become friends with vampires because it's frowned upon, as a 'shape-shifter'."

"Yeah."

"Do you _want_ to become friends with vampires?"

"Of course not," Leah spat. "I'm not _Seth_."

"You're his sister," Jasper pointed out.

"Unfortunately."

He frowned slightly. "You don't want to be his sister?"

"He'd be a great brother, except he's like, in love with all of you or something. It's pathetic."

"I see."

"No, you don't, so don't pretend you do," Leah snapped.

"You're in Port Angeles to buy him a birthday present." Jasper ignored her previous statement. _How rude,_ she thought.

"Yeah."

"How old is he turning?"

"Why the hell do you care?"

He smiled. "Why do you hate us?"

Leah slammed her coffee cup onto the table with a _thunk_. "Stop talking circles around me!" she shrieked, her annoyance bubbling up and out. A few people in nearby booths looked over, slightly alarmed expressions on their faces.

Leah clenched her teeth together and forced herself to calm down. "I hate you because you're _leeches_. We're not even supposed to be freaking talking." She took a sip of her drink.

"And yet here you are, talking to a leech," Jasper said, mildly. "You've never been the epitome of all things putative."

"Good point," Leah muttered into her coffee. Unfortunately, he heard her remark. _Screw super-sensitive parasitic senses. Ha, alliteration._

Jasper smiled. "Is that the only reason?"

"Well, you smell like shit."

"What exactly _do _I smell like?"

"I thought you already got MRL to tell you. Rotten garbage. Rotten, stinking, _perfumed_ garbage."

"MRL?" He looked faintly amused… not that _that_ was anything new.

"Mind-Rapist Leech," Leah explained.

"I see. Any clever pseudonyms for me?"

"BEFL… BB, LL…hmm."

"What do those stand for?"

"Blonde Emotion-Fucking Leech, Blonde Bloodsucker, Lieutenant Leech," she responded promptly.

"I was a Major, not a Lieutenant," Jasper informed her.

"Do I _look_ like I care?"

"True, you probably don't," he agreed. "Well, Seth and Jacob think we smell as well, but they can stand to be around us for longer periods of time. Do you have any other excuses?"

"First of all, I _told _you, I'm not Seth. Or Jacob," Leah snapped. "Second of all, they're not _excuses. _They're _reasons._"

"Whatever you say." Jasper actually looked like he meant it, but she could just feel the disbelief radiating off him; she didn't need emotion-fucking powers to tell her that. _Damn him._

"Well, do you have any more _reasons_ to not want to become friends with us?"

"Who's 'us'?" Leah demanded.

Jasper shrugged. "Vampires."

"Well, most bloodsuckers suck blood, as their name suggests," Leah deadpanned. "_Human_ blood. They're freaking _murderers_." She thought she saw BEFL wince at this, but she wasn't sure, and she pretended not to have seen it… she really didn't want to know, anyway.

"The Cullens, then," he said.

"… None of them like me."

"Only Edward doesn't like you."

"Why? Oh wait, don't tell me—because I gave his wife a reality check that one time a few months ago, right? She _needed_ it, the bitch."

"Good way of putting it… that's one reason, yes," Jasper agreed. Leah hated how she liked the fact that he didn't seem to mind her calling Bella_ fucking _Swan a bitch. "Also, you forget he can hear your thoughts—he doesn't like the many, ah, _disparaging_ comments you tend to make about us."

"Screw him. I don't like him either," Leah scoffed.

"He knows that."

"No shit. Blondie doesn't like me either."

"I assume you're referring to Rosalie?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Her."

"Rosalie doesn't dislike you," he corrected her.

"No way. She fucking hates me. Well, she hates Jacob and everything; she_ has_ to hate me."

"Not necessarily. Rosalie understands better than you think."

Leah rolled her eyes. "Please. She's a freaking Barbie who could probably turn any gay man straight—and that's a damn _fact_; I'm not _complimenting_ her or anything," she hastened to add, when she caught BEFL's expression. "Her life's perfect or whatever."

"As you told me earlier, it isn't wise to presume to know things you don't," Jasper said.

Leah scowled, disliking how he threw her words back at her. "Well, what's wrong with her life—existence, whatever—then?"

"That's not up to me to tell you… you can ask her yourself," he answered. "If you become _friends_ with her. Or any of us, really."

"Not a freaking chance in hell."

"Alright. Why not?"

Leah shook her head, suddenly feeling tired of the whole conversation. "Didn't we just go over this, like, sixty times? Why do you have to keep asking?"

"Let's start with me, then. Why won't you become friends with me?"

She stared at him for one long moment, reasons—most of them rather poor—whirling in her mind. She finally settled on, "Because we're complete opposites."

"Are we?" he mused.

"_Yes._ You're like, the Golden Boy or something. Blonde hair, pale skin that fucking _sparkles_ in the sunlight, yellow eyes, and all that shit. I'm Quileute—dark skin, dark eyes, dark hair. You're a bleeding_ leech_… pun unintentional." He smiled. "I'm a werewolf… shape-shifter… whatever. I'm Quileute, a Native American or American Indian… apparently, you were one of those Southern ranchers or something like that, the kind with a trillion slaves, the kind that hates us _colored folk_." Leah mimicked a Southern twang—a rather bad one—with those three syllables. "Complete opposites, see? Nothing in common."

"Haven't you ever heard of the term 'opposites attract'?"

She wrinkled her nose. "You know, that comment—as well as a lot of other ones you make—can be construed in many different ways, not all of them entirely proper."

"We didn't have to worry about ladies construing our comments in inappropriate ways back when I was born," Jasper said. "There are many insinuations to be made in modern times."

Leah snorted and nearly choked on her coffee again. "Did you just say _ladies_?"

"… Yes." Jasper gave her one of those "I-don't-see-what's-so-funny" looks, coupled along with a raised eyebrow.

"Nobody says 'ladies' anymore. _Nobody_," Leah managed to say, between fits of coughing.

"Such is the sad state of the world today?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.

"No comment." Leah shook her head. "Lieutenant, you're so freaking old-fashioned."

"Major."

"I don't care. I demoted you. Deal with it, asshole."

Jasper's lips twitched. "Alright, I shall."

"And, see? Nobody says 'I shall' anymore. _That's old-fashioned_, Corporal."

"Why don't you just stick with 'Lieutenant,' if that's what you're going to insist on calling me?"

"Because it's fun to switch around, Private Parasite."

He smiled wryly. "Shall I call you something similar, then, Leah Clearwater?"

Leah glared at him. "Don't call me that."

"What, 'Leah Clearwater'?"

"Yeah."

"Well, then what should I call you?"

"Huh… I'm _colored folk._ How 'bout Colored Clearwater? Since calling people by their last names, along with labels, is supposed to be rude, and we're supposed to be rude to each other. Like in Harry Potter, that Malfoy kid always called that Hermione kid or however the fuck you pronounce her name the 'Mudblood Granger.' But then, 'Colored Clearwater' is kinda self-contradictory…" she trailed off, thinking.

"You've read Harry Potter?"

"Yeah, of course. Everyone has."

"I haven't."

"Well, then you should. The werewolves in Harry Potter transform in a really painful way every full moon and have no control over themselves. All of the wizarding society hate werewolves. They're all made out to be savages and shit. You bloodsuckers would like it… disparaging werewolves and laughing at their pain, right?"

"I don't hate werewolves," Jasper said. "Or laugh at their pain."

"You mean _shape-shifters_," Leah corrected him.

"Of course. Shape-shifters."

Leah nodded, and looked down at her cup of coffee. She realized she'd drained it, and she reached for the other cup of coffee meant for Alice (that would never be drunk if left that way), and took a sip from that cup.

"You know, we just had a relatively pleasant conversation. A long one," Jasper said. "You didn't seem to hate me while speaking to me. Do you still not want to be friends?"

Leah realized that his words were true, and she didn't like that. "No," she answered, but she found that her words were lacking conviction. _Shit._

"You know, I think you mostly don't want to be friends because that's what you're used to," Jasper decided. "It's _normal_ for you. You don't want change, because change has never been good for you before."

"What happened to not fucking with my emotions?" Leah wondered why the coffee cup she raised to her lips kept banging against her teeth instead of just staying still and letting her drink from it. Then she noticed her hands were shaking. It took a great effort to calm them.

"I'm not 'fucking with your emotions'," Jasper said, and her words sounded strange coming from his mouth. "They're clear in your voice, on your face."

Leah set down her coffee cup with a bang. "I'm leaving," she hissed, and she hated how her voice shook. "I am so fucking _out_ of here."

"I'll see you here next week, same day, same time," he called out to her retreating back.

Leah stormed out of the café, ignoring the half-startled, half-pleased look a blonde waitress that looked strangely familiar sent her as she left. She'd just pushed past the café's door, tinkling bells and all, when her already-desensitized (again) nose caught another whiff of bloodsucker… this scent was just the tiniest bit sweeter than the one Leah had just gotten used to for the past half-hour or so. She started in surprise then, because petite little Alice Cullen was standing in front of her, arms laden with shopping bags. (Leah couldn't help noticing that some of the shopping bags were from the clothing store she and Jacob had visited earlier today. _That_ was probably why the place had smelled awful.)

"Hello, Leah," the tiny vampire greeted her, ignoring her startled flinch. She reached a pale hand into one of the many shopping bags hanging from her arm and handed Leah a wrapped package. "This is for Seth," she explained, and then, with a cheery little wave and smile, the petite vampire turned and disappeared into the café.

Leah stared at the plainly-wrapped package she now held for one long moment. She contemplated throwing it into the nearest trash bin for a second or two, before shoving it in her pocket and walking away.

* * *

_Short chapter, I know. :) Reviews are lovely. They make me grin like an idiot. And my stomach still hurts like hell. So I think you should all pity me and review, okay? ;)_

_Thanks for reading. _


	7. 七

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. I totally failed three of my exams (not literally, but still, I did pretty horribly for my standards… I probably should've studied), and once my dad finds out, he's going to fucking murder me. With a toothpick and a blunt knife. So if I disappear and never come back, it's not my fault, okay? :)_

_I've planned this story out; it's going to have ten chapters. At least, that's the plan as of now. Yup.  
_

_The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is an awesome book. Lots of violence, whoo.  
_

_For readers of NSTAHEA (No Such Thing As Happily Ever After… the Leah/Nahuel story): I'm going to slow updates on that while I try to finish this before February 6th (so this story will be finished when it's exactly one month old). I'll probably fail, but oh well._

_

* * *

_

"What the _fuck_, Leah?!" Seth yelped, pulling back the last piece of brown wrapping paper to reveal what was inside.

"Watch your language," Leah said automatically, swatting him 'round the head out of habit; her mother would approve of that. Then her eyes focused on what her little brother had been swearing about, and she nearly fell over, laughing. It was mandatory to clutch the table to keep her balance. "Oh my God…"

"Right, like it's not _your_ fault I swear," Seth retorted. "You and Jake have the dirtiest mouths ever." Before Leah could correct him, saying that her language was more foul than Jacob's any day, he snapped, peeved, "Seriously though, Leah… you got me a freaking _diary_?!"

This only set Leah off into peals of laughter again. "Diary… wow…" she managed to gasp out, between fits of choking hysterics.

"A _diary_!" Seth was now bemoaning his fate. "I'm not a _girl_! I can't believe you gave me a _diary_ for a birthday present—"

_Actually, Alice Cullen got it for you,_ Leah thought, but she didn't say so. There had been a note tucked in a fold of the wrapping paper covering the diary (or "journal"), saying that Leah should pretend the present was from her, and that it had been Seen (somehow; Leah had thought the psychic couldn't have visions of werewolves/shape-shifters, and said psychic had refused to elaborate in the note) that Seth would Use The Present (which turned out to be the diary/journal). Hence, Leah hadn't known about Seth's gift being a diary until now. The thought was made much more amusing by her brother's reaction to it, and Alice's assurance that Seth would use it, meaning actually _write_ in it.

"Only girls write in _diaries_," Seth was grumbling. "Seriously… a _diary_…"

"You sure you're not a girl, then, Mr.—or should I say _Miss_—Fifteen-Years-Old?" Leah teased.

Seth glared at her. "Yes, I'm sure I'm not a girl." A thought seemed to occur to him then, and his eyes brightened with mischief. "Want me to prove it to you?"

Leah stared at him, shocked, for a moment. "Did you just… make a _sexual insinuation_? At _me_? I'm your freaking _sister_!"

Seth grinned cheerfully. "I knew that would scare you off."

"I guess Jake and I really _are_ rubbing off on you," Leah mumbled.

"_Damn_ straight," Seth agreed, putting emphasis on the curse as if to prove her statement; he was unknowingly echoing her words of the previous week.

* * *

The next day, Leah inexplicably found herself standing in front of the Port Angeles café entrance again.

She told herself she was only there to thank BEFL for his—or rather, his wife's… maybe both—birthday gift for Seth. It was polite to thank people for gifts, even if said _people_ were _bloodsuckers_. It was one thing to be rude to a leech for being a leech; it was entirely another issue to be rude by not thanking someone for something… even if that _someone_ was a leech…

_That didn't even make any sense_, Leah thought, and then she pushed the thought out of her mind, pushed it out of her mind as she pushed open the door to the café and stepped inside. The bells tinkled, and the redheaded sallow-faced girl was by her side in a flash.

"Leah Clearwater," the hostess/waitress girl greeted her, in that roiling, guttural accent. "Same place as last week."

Leah was a bit startled that the girl remembered last week, but only nodded. "Thanks," she said, and started to head off in that direction, but the girl stopped her.

"You're an Injun," she said.

"Yes…" Leah said slowly, wondering if the girl knew that term was considered offensive (probably not), and what she was getting at.

"What's an Injun doing with someone like him?" The girl's voice lowered conspiratorially, and Leah knew she didn't want Jasper to hear. Poor girl; vampires missed nothing.

"You mean…"

"Yeah, him. Rich guy."

Leah could feel Jasper's golden gaze boring into her back. "Rich guy?"

"Designer clothes," the girl explained.

How the hell anybody could tell designer clothing from non-designer clothing, when said clothing did not have labels, Leah would never know. She opened her mouth to answer, but BEFL beat her to it. "We're friends," he said.

"That's stretching it a bit far, wouldn't you think?" Leah muttered, low enough so that only he could hear. She could almost _feel_ him smiling wryly at that comment.

The hostess (or whatever she was; Leah still didn't know) looked faintly embarrassed to be caught talking about him. "Okay then, none of my business," she mumbled. She handed Leah a menu and left.

Leah blinked after the girl, before turning towards the vampire sitting in the booth nearby. "I'm only here to say thank you for Seth's present," she stated. "That's it."

"Seth's present?"

"Your wife gave me a diary for Seth's birthday," she explained. "You didn't know that?"

"Oh, that. Yes. It was all Alice's doing. How old is he turning again?"

"Didn't I already tell you?" Leah demanded.

"No. I asked. You didn't answer."

"Well, it's none of your business, anyway," she snapped.

Jasper smiled tolerantly, and gestured at the seat opposite him in the booth. "Why don't you sit down?"

"I'm only here to thank you—or Alice, whatever—for the present," Leah informed him. "So there's no point in sitting down, since I'm done doing what I came here to do and I'm going to be going now."

His eyebrows went skyward. "You came all the way to Port Angeles just to thank me for a gift that Alice gave you to give to Seth?"

Well, when put like _that_, Leah fumed, it seemed a lot more ridiculous than it actually felt. No, scratch that—she felt ridiculous now, too. It was all the stupid leech's fault.

"It can't hurt to sit down for a little bit," BEFL said cajolingly, gesturing at the seat opposite him again.

"How long did you disappear from your wife's visions this time?" Leah asked, sitting. It seemed pointless to refuse any longer. If she tried to again, her acquaintance would probably just use his emotion-fucking powers and make her want to stay there. _Better get it over with._

"Clever," he said. "Not too long, but you won't be leaving within the next five minutes or so."

"I figured." Leah sighed. "Then I want some coffee."

"Certainly."

As the BEFL waved a waitress over (a different one from last time; this one looked about thirty or so and seemed to have no interest whatsoever in Jasper), Leah forced herself to think about her situation. She decided to break it down into the five Ws:

_Who: Me. And the blonde emotion-fucking leech._

_What: Hanging out. In the loosest sense of the word._

_Where: Café, Port Angeles._

_When: Uh, today._

_Why: … I have no fucking clue._

It was true, Leah realized wretchedly. She was willingly spending time with a bloodsucker, and she had no idea why.

_Willingly_, she thought, and then she wanted to scream at what was suddenly so obvious. _Am I _stupid_? How did I not see it before?_

The moment the waitress left with Jasper's orders, Leah turned to him and hissed, "You're fucking with my feelings again!"

"Again?" he inquired, his eyebrows going up once more.

"Yes! Why _else_ am I staying here, 'willingly' spending _time_ with a _bloodsucker_?!" she spat. "I said thanks for the freakin' present; I'm _going_ now!"

She made to stand up, but BEFL reached a hand out across the table and took a hold of her arm. To what, stop her? She tried to jerk herself out of his grasp, but he was too strong.

"Let go of me," she snarled, yanking at her arm again. His hands were unpleasantly hard and_ freezing_. How Bella Swan (or Cullen, now) had been able to stand it when she was a human, Leah would never know.

"According to Alice's lack of visions, you were here for a bit longer than this," he said, still smiling agreeably; his teeth were a brilliant flash of white, even against his pale face. Shivers skittered down Leah's spine.

"My God, is _everything_ you do according to your wife's visions?" she seethed. "Uxorious much?"

"No, not _everything_ I do—or have done—pleases Alice," Jasper admitted.

Despite herself, Leah was slightly intrigued. Even though Jasper Hale (or Whitlock, as he'd said before) and Alice Cullen appeared to be total opposites (and he was so much taller, too), they always seemed like the perfect, content couple, and the idea of one of them doing things that the other didn't approve of was rather interesting to hear of. "Such as what?" she wanted to know.

His smile turned hard, humorless. "Such as the things I've done in my past," he said.

Another shiver raced down Leah's spine. This one was much worse than the last; it coupled along with the fact that she'd probably just begun wandering into forbidden territory. That cold smile was definitely the "KEEP OUT" sign on the chain-link fence.

"Like what?" She suddenly found she really did want to know. No… she didn't. She didn't want to know, but she needed to. His hand was off her arm now, forgotten.

The waitress returned, with two cups of coffee. Leah took one and took a long sip; her tongue burned, keeping her mind off what she'd just asked, and the consequences of it… of what she would possibly learn within the next few minutes.

"Did you know," he said, steepling his fingers together in the air, elbows on the table, "I was the only vampire Maria created that she kept around for over a decade? Everyone else bored her quickly, after their status as newborns ended, and they were killed."

The question "Who's Maria?" jumped to the tip of Leah's tongue, ready to spring out, and she literally had to bite down on it (not pleasant, considering how she'd just burned it as well) to keep the question from escaping. Instead, she took another gulp of coffee and wondered if BEFL was going to tell her… well… everything. Then she wondered why he was even bothering.

"Usually by me, in the time I worked for her," he said, and it took Leah's brain a moment to process the words. _They were killed_, and then _usually by me_…

"Ah. So you were… vampire mafia or something?"

His smirk was wry. "Armies."

"Makes sense, Lieutenant."

"And this Maria person was your… commander or something."

"You could say that," he agreed.

"Armies. What's so bad about that? What were you fighting over?"

The smirk disappeared as quickly as it had come. "Land," was the answer.

"What?" Leah was confused now. "There were bloodsucker kings or whatever in the US around the time of the Civil War? … You're the Civil War leech, right?"

"That's one way of putting it, yes. Humans were unaware of the wars," Jasper said. "The wars were for… lands with the greatest human population."

Perhaps she was feeling a bit slow on the uptake today, but Leah still didn't understand. "I don't get it. Why do you want to have lands with a bunch of humans, anyway? They're no use to you."

"No use, except for…" his voice trailed off.

It hit her then, like someone dropping a weight on her unsuspecting head from high above, hard and fast and painfully. "You…" her voice trailed off as well.

"Do you remember the newborns from over half a year ago, when the vampire, Victoria, who was after Bella, attacked?"

Leah nodded mutely. Her throat felt constricted, and something told her that if she tried to speak, her voice wouldn't work.

"The armies were composed of newborns. I killed many every day."

_Yeah, Sam said something like that,_ Leah thought; she'd been too detached by the recently learned information to remember that she wasn't supposed to say _his_ name. The second weight dropped, and she wondered dimly if Jasper felt it—he _was_ the blonde _emotion-fucking_ leech, after all. Judging from the brief flash of… _something_… in his eyes, he probably had.

"And how many… _humans_ have you killed?"

He was silent, continuing to fiddle with his fingers as if they were an intricate puzzle. Leah looked away to the floor of the café; how was it possible that cool, dull colors like _blue_ and _gray_ could look so much like blood? It was probably the pattern of the floor, she reflected, the way the colors dripped down and swirled together that made them appear similar to that liquid of life…

"I've tried not to keep track." Jasper's voice was bleak, and it broke Leah out of her reverie. She blinked, and looked up. "Do you truly want to know?" he asked.

She nodded. _No, I don't want to know._

"A few thousand."

The words didn't register with Leah. "A few… thousand," she said, slowly.

"Yes."

"Not even a hundred. A _thousand_."

"Yes."

"A _few_ thousand."

"Yes."

"A few _thousand_."

"… Yes."

Leah had said the words plenty of times already, but they still sounded strange, hollow and foreign, coming from her mouth. "You're a freak," was the only thing she could think of to say.

"Now I am, yes. Vampires don't generally drink the blood of animals."

"You're a freak," she repeated.

His eyes hardened. "So says the only female werewolf—shape-shifter—in existence."

Leah glanced at him, then looked away again. "We're the freaks of the freaks," she said, and she laughed bitterly. "But at least you have your wife."

"You have Seth, and Jacob," Jasper pointed out.

"Jacob has _Nessie_," she spat the name out as if it were poison, "and Seth… he doesn't need me."

"Of course he needs you," Jasper said. "You're his sister."

"And Jacob's his brother. Pack brothers. He doesn't need his sister when he has brothers. Testosterone bonding and stuff, right?"

"Everyone needs some estrogen in their life," Jasper said.

"Yeah, well, it doesn't look like it," Leah muttered.

A few minutes passed in silence, and Leah took another few sips of her coffee, which had cooled down considerably to her tongue by now. Then she realized she'd just basically spilled her guts… to a _leech_… the leech who could fuck around with emotions. _Her_ emotions.

She was more upset by the fact that she wasn't that upset about it, than the fact that it had actually just happened.

_If that even makes sense._

"I suppose you don't need any more testosterone in your life than you already have," Jasper said.

"No, I suppose I don't."

"… May I offer anyway?"

Leah blinked at him across the table, suddenly incredulous. "… You're not serious," she said.

"Don't you remember the 'why won't you be friends' conversation from last week?" he returned.

"But… you just told me you're a freaking _murderer_; well, a mass murderer… I already knew you were a murderer in the first place… and now you're offering to be _friends_?"

She thought she saw him wince, just the slightest bit, though she wasn't a hundred percent positive. "Think about it," he said.

"… Fine," she acquiesced. "I'll _think_ about it. And… I'm going now." She needed time to think, about more than just the whole friends thing. Some time to sort her thoughts and feelings around, without Jasper Whitlock around to influence them, unintentionally or not.

"I'll see you here at the same time next week, Leah Clearwater," he said. He reached a hand out across the table, and she realized he was offering a handshake.

"… You're fucking insane," Leah told him. _A _handshake_. What the _hell_?!_

His hand dropped, and he smiled. "So I've been told. Good-bye, Leah Clearwater."

"Colored," she said, and left.

* * *

_I'll probably edit this some other time… a lot. I haven't even proofread it, but I reallyreallyreally REALLY have to go now. So, yeah. Feel free to point out any typos you spot. Thanks for reading; review, please!_


	8. 八

_Sorry it took me so effing long to update. (Well, I used to think any updates under three weeks were fast, but that's just for the HP fandom. Not Twilight.) Writers' block sucks like fuck. (And dude, I already have the ending all written out. It's just these next few chapters that'll be hard. Ish.) And my dad didn't kill me about the bad exam grades. He said I should just do better next time, and confide in him immediately or something. Yupyupyup. You'd be shocked about that if you knew him. I know I am. Shocked, that is.  
_

_By the way, I'm trying out for this orchestra school thing. If I make it, I probably won't ever be allowed on the computer again. (Exaggeration, but not by much.) So… expect really slow updates if that happens. Yeah._

_Anonymous review replies, yo~_

**_Winter: _**_Thanks for reviewing. And thanks. :D Glad you think so!?_

**_sense & sensibility: _**_Well, I /do/ have a warning about that at the top of the first chapter, at the beginning of the author's note there. If you choose to ignore it, that's not my problem.  
_

**_hasa: _**_Er, glad you like it? xD Aw, thanks. And thanks for reviewing!_

_

* * *

_

Leah found that running helped her think.

Normally, when she ran, she _couldn't_ think—there was usually someone else in her head, preventing any train of thought from leaving its station… not that she'd _want_ to think of anything remotely relating to her own personal problems when she wasn't alone in her mind. (Of course, she _did_ use to do that, to torture the other members of the pack she'd previously been in, but that was an entirely different story.) However, she was running alone now, and her thoughts ran free in synchronization with her paws.

They (her thoughts) were rather disjointed, but the basic gist of them had something to do with the fact that she'd just found out BEFL was a mass murderer (she'd always had some inkling of his violent past, but still… a _few thousand people_?!), and yet she'd _still_ somehow found herself spilling her guts to him.

Leah Clearwater was not supposed to Spill Her Guts to _anybody_ (and yes, she felt that deserved capital letters), let alone a _leech_. And not even a _nice_ leech, like the mother one (Esmee or something?—one half of the Spawn's horrible name), but a _mass murderer._

Leah was all the more furious with herself about that because of BEFMML's (Blonde Emotion-Fucking Mass Murderer Leech… it was starting to become quite a mouthful) ability. For all she knew, he was manipulating her emotions to make her _want_ to Spill Her Guts to him. Leah didn't know the specifics of his power, but it was quite possible that it worked subtly, and she wouldn't even notice it when it happened… when it had its effects on her.

Or maybe, Leah thought, she actually _did_ want to Spill Her Guts to him. Maybe she was aching for somebody to confide in, and since BEFL (she decided the "MM" part was a bit too much) seemed to be the only person around who really cared right now…

_But maybe,_ she argued with herself, _that's just his power working, and his power's making me defend it! _

But would it work even when he was out of proximity?

_Ugh._ It was all so confusing; there were too many variables to factor in. Leah found herself sympathizing—just a _little_ bit—with the psychic leech; surely _her_ ability would be even more confusing. Then Leah wondered why she was making so many connections with the leeches lately.

_It's that stupid BEFL's fault_, she grumbled to herself. _He and his damn—_

_Hey, sis! Lots on your mind?_

Leah yelped, startled, and nearly rammed into a tree. At the last minute, she swerved to avoid it, and sincerely hoped that nobody else would pop up in her mind; Seth was going to be bad enough. _Seth! What the hell are you doing?_

_Uh, talking to you? _He sounded confused.

Leah growled.

_Oh! Oh, right. Um, I'm chasing Emmett around the woods. I think… hold on a sec—_

She was confused for a moment, before she caught the flurry of thoughts from her little brother's mind, detailing what had just happened. _You wrote in the diary you got, and then Emmett stole it? What?_ she cackled.

_Oh, shut up—ha! _Seth's mind displayed him tackling Emmett, claws tearing at the back of his shirt. _Give that back, sucker! _he crowed.

Leah watched the show with no small amount of amusement. Emmett had dropped the diary and was poking at the ruined fabric of his shirt now. "Aw, man!" he complained. "Rose is going to kill me; she gave me this for—"

"You should have thought of that before stealing Seth's diary," MRL spoke up, popping up in Seth's vision. He reached down and picked up the small black book and held it out to Seth, who nipped at his fingers before taking the book in his mouth.

_It is _not_ a diary! It's a journal,_ he protested.

_You sure about that? _Leah asked him.

_Shut up, Leah_, he grumbled.

_I guess that's how Alice knew he'd write in it, _Leah thought, and then refused to say more when Seth demanded to know what that meant.

"You may want to leave Seth alone now, Emmett," MRL said. "He's talking to Leah."

"Oh, the girlie-wolf?" the big, bulky vampire asked, and even though Leah had always hated the nickname, she knew he didn't mean it offensively. _Strange._ "Isn't she hanging out with Jasper?"

"He left hours ago; I'm sure they're done by now," MRL said.

_That sounds really wrong, _Leah thought.

She saw, through Seth's vision, how the MRL's lips quirked up at that comment. _Just like Jasper, _she realized, and then she would've hit herself over the head for making yet _another _connection with the aforementioned leech, but her paws were too preoccupied with running. And she was still in her wolf form.

"He's meeting Alice, isn't he?" Emmett asked. "For shopping or something? They go shopping practically every—"

_"Emmett Cullen! What did you do to that shirt?!"_

Emmett's voice went up a few octaves or so. "Oh, hey, Rose, I—" The vampires all faded from Seth's vision then, and their voices grew into dull murmurs in the background.

_Running away, Seth? _Leah mocked. _Best idea you've had all day._

_I don't know why you have to insult the Cullens all the time, _Seth said, sounding injured. _They're actually really nice._

Are_ they, _Leah deadpanned.

_Yeah! _

_The Barbie didn't sound too happy._

_That's 'cause she bought Emmett that shirt, and it cost a lot or something, _Seth explained.

_Yeah, well, the leeches are just _rolling_ in money. _Which was distinctly unfair; Leah wouldn't have been able to afford college without a scholarship (and she never ended up going to college, anyway, due to the whole werewolf thing), but the bloodsuckers had so much money it wasn't even funny. And they'd probably all gone to school dozens of times already.

_Her name's Rosalie, by the way, _Seth informed her. _Not Barbie._

_Do I look like I care?_

_Well, I wouldn't know; I can't see you right now, _he pointed out. _And you can__'t really see yourself.  
_

_You're hopeless, bro. Completely hopeless._

_Gee, thanks._

_No problem._

Relative silence, punctured by the muted sound of traffic in the background. Leah was running in the forest next to the highway.

_So, what did you and Jasper do? _Seth asked.

She swerved around another tree in her way. _Ew, Seth—_

_Not like _that_!_ he corrected, sounding horrified. _You have a really bad mind, sis._

_I've noticed. I _am_ the one who possesses said bad mind, you know._

_Yeah. I mean… oh, you just talked, and—mass murderer?_

Leah winced. She still didn't want to be reminded of that. She honestly hadn't meant to let her thoughts slip; she would never be as good at hiding her thoughts as Jacob was. It was probably his stupid alpha genes.

_Oh,_ Seth finally said, having taken in most of what had happened with Leah and Jasper. _Well… that was his _past, _Leah. He's not like that anymore. You can be friends with him._

_But… _mass murderer, _Seth! He killed _thousands_ of people! He's exactly the type of leech we're supposed to kill!_

Seth winced a little at this, but determinedly plowed on. _That was _before_, not now. Edward ate humans too, y'know._

This information stopped Leah short. _What? He did? Mr. Self Control? The mind-rapist leech? The—_

_Yeah, yeah, Edward, _Seth grumbled_. That's him. Yeah… after Carlisle changed him, he didn't want to eat animals 'cause they tasted really bad, and he ran off and ate humans instead._

There were so many questions Leah found herself wanting to ask, despite herself, but the one that came out was, _Did his wife know when she dated him?_

_Yeah, _said Seth. _Bella knew. He used his mind-reading power to find bad guys and just eat _them_, not the good guys, but after a while, he decided it was still bad and ran back to find Carlisle._

_See? _Leah pointed out, deciding not to point out anything _else_ she was thinking (though her brother could probably still tell). _It was just the bad guys he ate, and not the good ones. Jasper ate a bunch of random innocent people!_

_Yeah, but he didn't know any better, _Seth said. _It was what he was taught or whatever when he got changed, so he thought it was normal._

Leah was silent.

_Leah, are you still there?_

_Yeah._

_So, y'know, you should give him a chance—_

_Why does he even want to be friends with me? And why do you even care? Can't you just mind your own freaking business?_

_I don't know, _said Seth, and she could tell he was answering all her question with that one phrase, _but you and Jasper would be really good friends. And Rosalie, too._

_The _Barbie_?!_

_Yeah._

_Why?!_

Seth seemed startled at her outburst. _Um, because… you're really alike?_

Jasper's words from the café the other day came back to her then: _Rosalie understands better than you think. _Could that possibly be _true_?

_The bloodsuckers have invaded my head, _Leah groaned to herself, and even as she thought that, she had to wonder just what had happened to Rosalie Hale to make them "alike," apparently.

If Seth had made some comment about that, Leah would have immediately reverted back to her Bloodsuckers-Are-Evil attitude, but he didn't, and she found herself tentatively venturing, _Seth?_

_Yeah?_

_How did you… become, er, friends with the MRL?_

_Huh?_

She rolled her eyes, or did the wolf equivalent of the action. _Like, after the fight with the redheaded leech and her newborn army or whatever it was called, you and the stalker—_

_Stalker?_

_MRL!_

_Who's MRL?_

_The mind-rapist leech, damn it! You know what I'm talking about, _Leah accused.

_Oh. Edward. _Seth sounded surprised. _Why don't you just say so, then? He has a name, y'know._

_Because he's a freaking _bloodsucker, Leah spat. _He doesn't deserve a name._

_He used to be human, _Seth reminded her. _He was born in 1901. He wanted to go to war._

Leah bit her tongue so hard, it hurt. She said nothing.

_They all used to be human. Did you know Alice doesn't remember her past at all?_

This surprised Leah so much, she had to say something to it, no matter how much she didn't want to. _Really?_

_Yeah. She had visions even when she was a human, and they put her in an insane asylum. People were really close-minded back then._

_Uh-huh…_

_Anyway, I think you said something else… oh right, I became friends with Edward because I was patrolling and I saw him past the border and he thanked me for helping him save Bella or something and he was really nice and so we started talking and he told me about his past eventually and I gave him my phone number or something—_

_And that's when you started crushing on him, instead of Jake?_

_What? Ew! No! _Seth's mind radiated disgust. _That's gross! _

From the way he was whining and shaking his head and pawing at the ground suddenly, Leah decided to believe him. For the most part, anyway. _So that's when you found out about his past and stuff?_

_Yeah, sometimes we met at the border. _

_And you didn't run away screaming when you found out he'd killed people before?_

_Why does it even matter? He's different now._

_Right. Says the president of the Cullen Fan Club._

_I'm not a president of any fan club!_

_Sounds like you are._

_Oh, shut up. Anyway, you should totally become friends with Jasper, 'cause that would be really cool. Now we just have to get Quil and Embry to like them, and then maybe Sam__'s pack__…_

Leah tuned her brother out as he started scheming, but she'd made up her mind already.

* * *

Later that week, she accosted Jacob just before he left for the Cullens to see Nessie, and shoved a piece of paper in his face. "It's a note," she snapped. "When you get there, give it to the blonde. The guy. Read it and I'll snap your neck." She stomped away, before Jacob could even have time to be stunned.

Half an hour later, Jasper unfolded the crumpled piece of paper. It had one word scrawled on it.

_Fine._

_

* * *

_

_This chapter was kind of short and really sucky, but oh well. That was a better place to end it than any other possible places to end this chapter, if I'd continued. The next chapter will surely be longer. Two chapters left after this! I'll try my best not to take so long to update again (sorry about that, again), and… yeah. Was anyone OOC? Any typos? Should there be a line break between "stunned" and __"half" near the end? _

_Review, please! Even though I probably don't deserve it._


	9. 九

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Look, it's a faster update. xP One more chapter left after this! This chapter was fun to write. :D _

_An issue relating to the poem thingy (yes, thingy. shaddup. I__t__'s not a song, anyhow__) quoted below is sort of addressed here. It__'s not exactly canon, because it directly contradicts something Leah said in canon. Oh well, I like this Leah better, and I think she__'s, for the most part, in-character. Ish. (I think. I hope.) So whatever. More about this in the author__'s note at the bottom.  
_

_This is set not long after BD, and according to the Twilight Lexicon timeline, that would be early 2006. Therefore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book of the Harry Potter series, has not come out yet. Keep that in mind. This chapter will probably have a bit more meaning for you if you__'ve read Harry Potter. Sorry.  
_

**_hasa: _**_Yeah, she did. :D I was hoping somebody would notice that. Thanks for reviewing!_

_

* * *

_

_I have supposed my past is a part of myself._

_As my shadow appears whenever I'm in the sun_

_The past cannot be thrown off and its weight_

_Must be borne, or I will become another man._

–_ **"The Past" **_by **Ha Jin**

**

* * *

**

True to his word, he was waiting for her in the same booth at the Port Angeles café, the same time next week.

"Hello, Leah Clearwater; I received your note," was the first thing out of his mouth, once she reached the table. "You managed to intimidate your alpha into not reading it quite well."

Leah laughed shortly, plunking herself down into the seat opposite Jasper's. "I figured you did. He took my threat seriously, then?"

"I recall Edward mentioning something about snapping necks."

"Something to that extent," she confirmed.

There was a moment of silence, and then Jasper said, "I suppose I should say thank you for accepting my proposal now."

Leah snorted. "You make it sound like a business transaction."

"It can be considered one, in some ways," he mused, appearing to actually consider the matter. "Though—"

His words were cut short by the arrival of the waitress—the same one from last week, who looked about thirty years old or so. "Hello. The same as last time?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you."

The waitress nodded, scribbled something on her pad, and left. Leah blinked, puzzled.

"She has a good memory," Jasper explained.

She scowled. "And how the hell did _you_ know what I was wondering?"

"I sense emotions, remember?"

Leah scowled again, more darkly this time. "You're supposed to leave my emotions alone, remember?" She mocked his tone.

He shrugged, unoffended. "I'm not manipulating your emotions. If you're speaking of my being able to sense them… I've told you time and time again, and will continue to do so as necessary: it's involuntary. I can stop sensing your emotions as soon as you can stop smelling… 'rotten perfume,' I believe you called it, when you're near a vampire."

"Is there a single freaking one of you leeches who _doesn't_ speak like they just fell out of a nineteenth century historical novel?" Leah snapped.

"I'm sure Bella doesn't. She was born in the twentieth century," Jasper offered.

Leah glared down at the tabletop. Maybe this friends thing would be harder than it first appeared… if he continued acting all condescending, it certainly would be.

Honestly, she still wasn't sure _why_ Seth's little talk the other day had gotten to her. She hadn't wanted to let it do so, but it had. Clearly, all that hanging around Jasper Whitlock had affected her more than she'd originally thought.

The worst part was, she couldn't convince herself it was bad anymore, the whole hanging out with bloodsuckers thing.

Not to mention how it was possible that she was only agreeing to attempt to become friends with Jasper Whitlock because his powers were making her want to.

_I don't think he'd do that, though, _Leah thought, and it annoyed her how she didn't know for sure if she really thought that, or if it was his "ability."

_But his ability only affects my emotions, not my thoughts. But then… don't you think about your emotions? … Ugh! This is so freaking confusing—_

Jasper's voice brought her out of her ruminations. "What are you thinking about?" he asked, almost sounding curious, instead of merely polite. She took the chance to study him, really study him.

Even if he wasn't a leech, Leah thought, he'd probably still be handsome. Slightly curling honey blonde hair, finely chiseled face, angular cheekbones, square jaw, and the whole nine yards. His skin was the typical deathly white pallor of all vampires, and his golden eyes were… yes, there was no mistaking the slight curiosity in them.

He was actually curious as to what she was thinking.

Leah had to stifle a burble of hysterical laughter, though she wasn't sure why. "Nothing much," she said..

The waitress arrived then, with their coffee. Only until Leah had taken a few sips of hers did something finally occur to her. "Hey, wait," she noted, with some surprise, "you've been paying for the coffee all the time."

He seemed amused by her rather late discovery, but somehow, she wasn't offended. (Much.) "Yes."

"And you don't even _drink_ coffee."

"I don't even recall if I liked it, as a human," Jasper said, sounding almost wistful for a moment. "Caffeine holds no allure for me."

Leah had to fight down a rather bizarre urge to giggle insanely at his use of the word _allure_—except Leah Clearwater didn't do things like _giggle_. It was rather immature, but she couldn't help herself, really. Then, she asked, "You don't remember if you liked coffee?"

"I don't remember much about my human life," Jasper explained. There was no mistaking the wistfulness in his voice now.

Leah gulped down some more of her coffee before responding. "Why not?"

"All human memories tend to be hazy for vampires."

His expression was inscrutable now. She peered at him for a moment before saying, lightly, "So, it's like, you get a super awesome memory once you're a vampire, but you have to lose your human memory for it?"

"One can think of it that way, yes," he agreed.

Leah chewed on her lip for a moment. "So… what human memories do you actually remember?"

Jasper smiled faintly. "That's the thing—I know what happened to me in the past, as a human, but I don't remember actually living it, and the details are fuzzy." His voice dropped lower. "I know I had a younger sister, but I don't remember what she looked like, or even her name," he said, and there was definitely something more than wistfulness in his tone now.

Leah suddenly felt an inexplicable surge of pity for him; though perhaps it wasn't that inexplicable: she couldn't imagine anything worse than the picture he'd just painted. Being detached from your past… it would almost be like losing your identity (and not in the "identity theft" way that had been occurring often lately, when people stole other people's credit cards or whatever).

Leah didn't like thinking about her past, but it was still a part of her. If she could've lived her past over again, she would have done everything in her power to keep S—_him_ away from Emily. But if she had the option of forgetting her past completely, she wouldn't choose to do so. She'd rather be a snarky bitch and know _why_, instead of, well, not being _herself_, thankyouverymuch.

After all, it was the whole thing with, er, _them_ that had made her into said snarky bitch. At least there was a reason behind it. Her past had shaped her, and not having a past meant you had a completely blank slate to start with.

Leah did not like blank slates. They were actually sort of frightening, with their… blankness and all that.

Jasper felt her pity, and he smiled wryly. "It's like watching a very long movie, and only retaining the basics of the plot," he said.

"Oh," Leah found herself mumbling.

"Yes, quite so."

There was a slightly awkward silence, and Leah sipped some more at her coffee, which reminded her of what had led to the whole human-memories/past conversation in the first place. "How much money do I owe you?"

"You don't owe me anything," said Jasper, sounding surprised that she'd even asked.

"I can't make you buy coffee you're not even going to drink, cowboy."

"You're not making me do anything. It's my pleasure."

"This isn't a date or anything," Leah snapped. "And it's not like 200 BC or whatever, so you don't have to pull the whole chivalry 'guys-pay-for-girls' crap."

"Coffee wasn't around in 200 BC."

"It's the whole concept of chivalry, soldier. Coffee has nothing to do with it. God, go get a sense of humor."

"They don't sell many of those around here," he said, with a perfectly straight face.

Leah stared at him for one long moment, and then she couldn't help herself. She started laughing.

(It was the whole concept of the joke. The joke itself had nothing to do with it.)

* * *

The next time they met, it was three days later, at a café in Forks, not Port Angeles. It was closer, and more convenient that way.

He came with a black sports backpack slung over one shoulder. She didn't bother with greetings, and instead demanded to know what exactly was in the bag upon first catching sight of him. (And it.)

Jasper grinned at her as they sat down at a booth together in the café, attracting more than just a few odd stares. Those who didn't recognize him as one of the Cullens, "back from college," just thought of him as a tall, handsome, _white_ young man, and they saw her as an Indian girl from the La Push reservation nearby. What were they doing _together_? Was it possible, were they—here, voices lowered to whispers that Jasper could hear perfectly—_dating_?

The two paid the gossipers no mind. Jasper put the backpack down, unzipped it, and showed his companion the contents.

Leah cracked up. "_Harry Potter?_ You're reading _Harry Potter_?!"

Jasper's lips twitched in obvious amusement as well. "Well, you did say that everybody has read the Harry Potter series, so I decided to try it out myself."

"And what did you think of it?" Leah asked, controlling her laughter. She hadn't laughed in a long time… well, except for that instance in the Port Angeles café three days ago. It was slightly hysterical laughter, not the full-out "hahaha that's so funny" kind, but it was laughter nonetheless.

She would have been surprised by it, but Jasper was speaking again, so she focused her attention on his words instead. "It's very… interesting, and amusing to read as well. Beneath the fantastical exterior and childish names, there are many deep themes… some hidden, some very easy to spot."

"Oh? Such as?"

"Human nature, really… prejudice, jealousy, friendship, love—love is a main theme, hate, discrimination, life, death—another main theme, time, knowledge, desire—not necessarily of a sexual kind, education, truth and lies, loyalty, unity, separation, value, humility, rebellion, the thin line between what is right and what needs to be done—"

"Whoa, whoa, _whoa_. Slow_ down_, cowboy," Leah said, raising her palms. "When _I_ read Harry Potter, I just thought Hermione or however the fuck you pronounce her name was annoying! I didn't look for, like, a trillion themes or whatever!"

"She's a good character, though she can be rather… know-it-all at times," Jasper agreed, with her first statement.

"Because you so totally aren't know-it-all at _all_," Leah muttered, and was rewarded with another amused smile.

"Wait," she said, frowning, and sitting up slightly in her seat, "did you read all six of the books already?"

He nodded.

"But that's like… 2000, 3000 pages! How the hell did you—"

Then she remembered his vampire super-speed, though somehow, the reminder of the fact that he wasn't human (or, more specifically, the reminder of the fact that he was a vampire) didn't bother her as much as it would have a few days ago. "Oh. Right. Never mind. So… who's your favorite character so far?"

"I have to say… Tom Riddle."

Leah started in surprise. "But… Voldemort? He's the bad guy! You're not actually…" she peered at his face, his serious expression. "Why?" she asked.

"His psyche is very interesting," Jasper explained, and Leah snorted. His _psyche._ So it was about psychology, then. Right. _Stupid super-smart vampires. Self-contradictory, but whatever. Alliteration, whoo. _"It's interesting, seeing how… childhood trauma, of a sort, caused him to hate humans without magic, so much that he became devoted to wiping them out—"

"Why don't you just call them 'Muggles'? That's the name for non-magical people in the world of Harry Potter," Leah pointed out. "There's no need for all those extra syllables to explain your point."

"It's a rather ridiculous name, wouldn't you think?" he returned. She thought he was purposely dodging the question.

"I guess. But that's the fun part, cowboy."

"Why do you call me a cowboy?" he asked.

She shrugged. "'Cause you are, aren't you? Were, at least. One of those Southern ranchers. I can call you a solider, if you want. Sergeant. Lieutenant. Corporal. Captain. General. Private."

"Why not Major?"

"Why not _hokwat_?"

"What's that?"

Leah raised her eyebrows at him. "And I thought you were Mr. Educated."

"I'm assuming it's the Quileute language?"

She sighed. "Nothing ever gets past you, does it?"

He smirked. "No, in both the literal and figurative sense."

"It means non-Indian." She stared him straight in the eyes, looking for any signs of offense or the like, but he only nodded, noncommittally.

"It was Edward and Carlisle who wanted to learn more about the Quileutes when we first moved to Forks seventy years ago, not I."

She shrugged, suddenly feeling bothered that she _didn't_ feel bothered, about the reminder that he was probably older than her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather or something.

"That's interesting, though. I haven't strayed far beyond learning the romance languages."

And so Leah Clearwater found herself being roped into teaching Jasper Whitlock Hale some of the more commonly used Quileute words and phrases.

It looked like those classes at Quileute Tribal School did come in handy after all.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Leah found that she couldn't deny she and Jasper Whitlock(-Hale) were slowly but surely becoming friends. They talked about nonsensical things, noncommittal things, interesting things, and sometimes they joked around a little. Leah even cracked a smile every now and then.

She learned many interesting things about him as well, such as the fact that he preferred fiction to nonfiction. His exact words had been, "It's much more interesting to see how humans portray themselves in an invented situation and setting, rather than read about what they know of what they already did." Apparently, his study of human psychology had begun when he'd first started trying to understand the human mind better, to think of humans as _people_ and not walking refrigerators or something. (Leah had only been half-horrified to find herself _amused _by that prospect.)

Just because it wasn't impossible to say that Jasper Whitlock wasn't that bad now, though, didn't mean she liked any of the other vampires better. The doctor and the mother (of them all… not _Bella_ the mother) were okay, and so were the psychic and the bodybuilder. Leah could never bring herself to like the mind-rapist, though, or his wife, or their demon spawn. Probably not the Barbie, either. She was too… perfect. And sort of creepy, really.

However, the whole "Rosalie understands better than you think" thing kept nagging at Leah. She couldn't help wondering just what Jasper had meant by that.

She soon found out.

* * *

_Okay, one chapter left, and it's probably going to be long. -sigh- Maybe even really long. At least for my standards. There was going to be more in this chapter, but really, it doesn't matter if it's at the end of this chapter or the beginning of the next one, so whatever. _

_The thing where Leah said something contradicting canon in this chapter was when she said she didn__'t want to forget her past. She did say she wanted to forget her past/Sam in BD. I forgot where. Just somewhere. I don__'t want to believe that. Hence, Leah (I just spelled it Leha xD and I don't even know why I find that funny x_x) doesn__'t want to forget her past, like how she feels about Sam and all that, here. Yeah._

_About the Quileute language: the symbol(s) things won_'_t show up in the word hokwat, so it_'_s not exactly spelled like that, I think? I hope the research I did was correct. Huh. If not, feel free to point out my mistakes.  
_

_So, what do you all think? Is the friendship quote, developing, end quote too obviously? Too quickly? Too slowly? Reviews/constructive criticism are greatly appreciated! Flames will be read with some amusement.  
_


	10. 十

_I'd like to thank everyone who's reviewed, or even added this to their favorites or alerts. Cheesy as this sounds, thanks to everyone for sticking with me all this time! And now DitR is over… wow, my first completed multi-chaptered fic, ever! I'm going to miss it (but I'm glad it's over; one less thing to worry about! Haha. But I'm still sad it's over! Y'know?). This was really fun to write. Yeah. Sorry for using the "cotton candy" metaphor again in here; I just couldn't help myself. (For people who read/have read Circles, you'll know what I'm talking about.) Okay, I'm just going to shut up now because I'm sure no one is still reading this. Who even reads my super-long rambly (rambley?) author's notes, anyway?  
_

_

* * *

_

Alice informed Jasper one day that Rosalie had disappeared from her visions, coincidentally around the same time that Leah, Jacob, and Seth had next planned to go over to the Cullens'. "Therefore," Alice concluded cheerfully, "she's going to be hanging out with you and Leah! Perfect."

Jasper didn't protest much. What his wife (and her visions) said usually went. Leah had probably been right; he really _was_ uxorious.

All the Cullen men were, really.

He told his wife this, and she laughed and kissed him on the cheek. "And you love me for it," was her trilling response.

Well, that was true. It was enough of her to trust him alone with Leah.

Then again, she didn't really have anything to worry about.

The day arrived, and Jacob's pack (minus Quil and Embry, who still rather disliked the vampires) came over. Seth went to find Emmett (something about "journal, not _diary_," he was mumbling), Jacob went to find Nessie, and Leah was left with her fists shoved uncomfortably in the pockets of her jeans, standing in the entrance hall of 6C, as she'd continued calling it.

She was a bit surprised when Jasper showed up with the Barbie bloodsucker in tow. "Alice says she's coming with us," he explained, upon seeing the quizzical look on Leah's face.

Rosalie said nothing. She only bore a calculating expression.

The trio left the house, and Rosalie headed immediately for her car, the red BMW convertible. "Where are you two going?" she said, briskly.

"Um," was Leah's eloquent, intelligent reply. She didn't really know what to make of the situation.

"Restaurant? Movie theater? Café? Park? Strip club? Forest?"

"Why would we go to the forest?" Jasper asked, ignoring the "strip club" comment.

"Well, you haven't gone hunting in a while. Killing some poor, innocent deer is always an option." This was said as if it were a remark about the weather. Leah didn't appreciate the reminder of her companions' vampire-ness, not really.

"And I'm not sure if you'd last long in an area crowded with humans, in your current state," Rosalie added. Leah appreciated this comment even less.

"Rosalie…" There was an edge to Jasper's voice.

She shrugged. "It's a simple statement of fact. If you're sure you'll be fine, we can head somewhere else."

"We didn't really make specific plans for today," Jasper told her.

"Well, decide quickly, then. I'm not getting any older standing around waiting for you to make up your mind." Leah found, with some surprise, that her mouth actually sort of wanted to smile at the crack. She didn't, but just barely. "Restaurant? Movie theater? Café? Park? Strip club?" Rosalie repeated, this time omitting the "forest."

"I don't think strip clubs open at this time," Leah pointed out. Rosalie blinked.

"We can just walk around town," Jasper decided.

"Open air. Brilliant," Rosalie said, and unlocked her car. "Get in. Roll down the windows, wolf; I don't want you to stink up my car too much."

"Should I pant out the window, too?" Leah asked dryly, heading in.

Rosalie didn't smile, but something that looked like amusement shone in her dark golden eyes. "If you want to, feel free."

The drive into Forks was mostly silent, until Jasper spoke, clearly trying to ease the tension without using his powers… because Leah still didn't appreciate it when he did. "Rosalie enjoys mechanics, particularly of the automotive variety," he said.

"So does Jacob," Leah returned.

"The dog and I have something in common. Joy," Rosalie said.

"Why did you call me a wolf, then, and Jacob a dog?" Leah asked.

Rosalie's answer was terse. "He's _usually_ like a dog. You're like a wolf."

"Oh?" Leah hadn't been aware there was a difference between their animal likenesses.

Rosalie didn't elaborate. Instead, she said, viciously, "Edward's like a dog. Bella's like a _puppy_. A _newborn_ puppy."

Suddenly, Leah found that she liked the Barbie a lot more. Or rather, she would have, if she hadn't just insulted puppies—and dogs, too—everywhere.

"Rosalie," Jasper warned.

"Oh, look. We're here," Rosalie said nonchalantly. Leah hadn't noticed they were in Forks already—though she did know all the bloodsuckers (with the exception of the Spawn's mother) liked to drive fast. That silence must have been longer than she'd thought.

"Leah, if anyone so much as scratches my car when we get back, I'd like you to help me hunt them down and tear their throats out," Rosalie declared, as they climbed out of the convertible.

"Sure," Leah agreed. There was a pause, and then she asked, "Why did you just call me Leah?"

"It's your name, isn't it?"

"You called me a wolf before."

"That's what you are, isn't it?"

"Rosalie," Jasper sighed.

"Labels negate," Leah pointed out.

"I'm not a Barbie, Leah," Rosalie said.

Leah turned to stare at her, and nearly tripped over the curb. She didn't push Jasper's hand away when he steadied her. "I know that… Rosalie."

"Glad to hear it." A faint smile flickered over Rosalie's face, and then it was gone. "Let's go now; I'm sure there are desperate men—and perhaps women, too—waiting for me somewhere out there. I have to make their day before I crush it."

Rosalie was officially Leah's second favorite vampire from that point on.

* * *

It was two hours later, and the Hale "twins" and Leah were sitting, almost inevitably, it seemed, in a café.

Leah claimed one side of the booth to herself (she preferred the booths in the corners to the open seats in the middle), and Rosalie and Jasper slid into the other side. A young, pretty, red-haired waitress came to take their order.

"Hello," she greeted them, blue eyes fixated on Jasper. "What can I get you today?" This last bit was addressed directly to him.

"Hello," Rosalie said, her voice like cotton candy, saccharine and artificial. "I'd like to make one thing clear: My brother has a wife. You'll speak to all of us, and not just him. You will not give him your phone number, because he has and always will have zero interest in you. You will not attempt to flirt with him, either. At all. Three coffees, please. The standard kind, and if you're too inept to know what I mean, then any kind. I—we—don't care. Price is not an issue. Thank you, and have a nice day."

The waitress scurried away, frightened. Leah cackled.

"You two really _are_ alike," Jasper observed, amused.

"Of course. We've both been screwed over by men. Men are such dogs, aren't they, Leah?" Rosalie picked up the napkin holder and studied it intently.

In Sa—_his_ case, the "dog" thing was literal. "Completely, yeah."

"Man here," Jasper reminded them.

"You don't count," Rosalie said dismissively. "And I don't mean it in _that_ way. I'm sure Alice would know."

Leah snorted at the insinuation. "What did men do to you?" she asked.

Rosalie pulled a napkin out of its holder. "My fiancé, when I was still human, got drunk one night, and he and his friends raped me, then left me to die on the streets. I was changed into a vampire, and I killed them all. Gruesomely." She shredded the napkin to pieces. "I can't have children now, the only thing I've ever really wanted in life. Is it alright that I ordered coffee? Is there anything else you want?"

"No. Blunt," Leah said, because they were the only words that would form in her mind. The rest of it (it as in her mind) was a bit too shocked by the information she'd just been told to think of anything else.

She and Rosalie Hale really _were_ alike.

Except the vampire's situation was very probably worse.

Very probably.

"I had to sugarcoat it for Bella. In _detail_," Rosalie spat. Her face smoothed, then. "Here comes the coffee."

The waitress set the cups down on their table, not even daring to glance at either one of the Hales. "Here you go," she practically squeaked, then hurried off.

Rosalie's mouth twitched, and she said, "Thank you for not saying 'I'm sorry.' I appreciate it. I dislike pity, which was, of course, what Bella gave me."

"You're welcome," Leah said faintly.

"She's surprised by your bluntness, but she rather appreciates the lack of sugarcoating," Jasper explained to Rosalie.

"Shut up, emotion-fucker." He smiled.

"That's why I don't exactly like Bella." Rosalie shrugged. "She didn't even stop to consider her choices as a human; she immediately threw everything she had away for _Edward._" She rolled her eyes. "That's why I was so desperate for Nessie. Even if it meant Bella's death. And Edward's consequent suicide."

"He'd go to the Volturi, so it wouldn't literally be a suicide," Jasper corrected.

"I don't blame you," Leah muttered, picking up a cup and blowing on her coffee. "Bella's annoying."

"She's a very good person, but I won't comment on that," Jasper said.

"She made poor choices, but I suppose it's all turned out for the better," Rosalie said, shredding another napkin to pieces with slim, pale fingers.

Leah stared at the dark brown liquid in her cup, noting detachedly the ripples in it. Choices. It all came down to choices, didn't it? Because in the end, S—he—no, _Sam_ (she forced herself to think the name) hadn't had a choice.

She hadn't had a choice with the whole werewolf/shape-shifter/protect-the-tribe thing, either.

She did now, though. She could either dwell on _Sam_ for the rest of her (possibly abnormally long) life, or get over it and move on.

Too bad she didn't know what to choose.

"Leah Clearwater, you're crying," Jasper said quietly.

She reached up and swiped the back of her hand across her eyes. It was wet. _Christ, I haven't cried in forever. What the hell is wrong with me?_

"No, I'm not," she lied.

"Alright." Jasper nodded, acquiescing. Rosalie said nothing.

She gave a little hysterical laugh. "Why do you always call me 'Leah Clearwater'?"

"I don't know," Jasper said.

"Why did you want to be friends with me in the first place? I'm pathetic. I'm not a good friend."

"You are not pathetic. You are a perfectly fine friend." He left her first question unanswered, she noticed.

"You make him feel human," Rosalie said. "Call it platonic attraction. It's human nature. He likes that."

Leah's eyes swiveled sharply to her.

"I'm not human," Jasper said, and that was how she knew Rosalie had spoken the truth. "But I was, once. Being human… it's not so bad."

"You reckon, cowboy?" Leah asked, remembering his past as the son of a Southern rancher.

"I reckon," he agreed, and she thought she caught the faintest trace of a Southern twang in those three syllables.

"Are you alright?" Rosalie spoke up. Her face was concerned.

Leah shrugged. The tears had gone as quickly as they'd come. She didn't even know why they'd appeared in the first place. "I will be."

* * *

"It's my fault my father's dead."

Another two hours had passed, during which they'd spoken about random, light, unassuming topics. All the coffee had been consumed by Leah, and then Rosalie had driven them back to 6C (her car had remained unscratched). She'd then disappeared, and Leah and Jasper had trekked to a random spot in the forest. They'd stayed like that in silence for quite a while, and then Leah had spoken, uttering those six words.

She felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders, once the statement was out in the air. She'd confessed. Now Jasper knew how hideous she truly was.

At least _he_ hadn't killed his own father.

"No, it's not," he contradicted, immediately.

"You don't _know_. He was so shocked I turned into a fucking giant _wolf_, he had a heart attack. I _killed _him. I'm a fucking _murderer._"

"So am I," he reminded her. She flinched. "Your father died of a heart attack."

"_That I caused._ Coincidentally at the exact same time I turned into a _giant fucking wolf,_ didn't you_ hear_ me? Some coincidence." Her voice dripped sarcasm, and she laughed bitterly, staring up at the sky. The sun was just barely covered by the clouds; a bird chirped, high above her head.

"He had a bad heart."

"And how do _you_ know? You don't _have_ a fucking heart." She winced. "Wait… I mean… sorry." She had to force the word out.

"You're right," he said, calmly. "I don't have a heart." She blinked. "I gave it to Alice."

She shrugged.

"But I think she can share," he finished.

Leah suddenly wanted to blink back tears again. _Ugh, I haven't cried in forever, and then all of a sudden, I turn into a damn waterfall today. What the fuck? _"You're really cheesy, cowboy. Or maybe I should call you _hokwat_ again. You can be Hokwat One, and Rosalie can be Hokwat Two. H1 and H2. Like hydrogen. In which case, you can be Dro and she can be Gen. 'Cause if one of you are 'Hy,' it'll be like… 'Hi, Hy!' That'd just be weird, wouldn't it?"

"Are you sure _you're_ not 'Hy'?" Jasper said dryly.

Leah blinked again. _Hy, high… oh._ She choked back a giggle (because _what the fuck, I don't _giggle, she thought). "Pretty sure. Unless you laced that coffee when I wasn't looking, you stupid super-powered super-fast vampire. Dro."

"Very funny, Leah Clearwater."

"It would sound really weird if anyone else just called me by my full name all the time, but it sounds normal coming from you," Leah noted, with some surprise.

"You reckon?" he drawled. That Southern twang again.

"I reckon," she said, and then she stretched her arms up high in the air. The clouds were moving away from the sun now. "I really loved Sam," she whispered. "I think I still do. And he ditched me for Emily, because he imprinted on her. My cousin… she was like my _sister_. But… he didn't have a choice."

"He did," Jasper returned. She stared at him. "But it was too small for him to see. He overlooked it."

Leah dropped her arms to the ground and stared at that instead. The dirt and moss there was quite fascinating, really. "But… _I_ have a choice. I didn't imprint on anyone," she said, and she hated how small her voice suddenly sounded.

"You have more choice than almost anyone," Jasper said.

She'd been confused too many times today. She didn't like it. "What?"

"That's why I think Alice can't see any of you in her visions," he elaborated. "Once, weeks ago, I told you my future had disappeared from Alice's visions for about half an hour, when I was with you, and you asked me if that meant you were 'stuck with me' for another half hour." Leah _did_ recall that, now that she thought about it. "The answer was no. You can change your future, Leah. You have choices. But you wolves are… volatile. Unpredictable." She thought about how easy it was lose control and phase; all you had to do was get angry. (Very angry.) "And I think that's why Alice can't see any of you in her visions," he reiterated. "Because you have too many choices, and she can't see the outcomes of them all. So she sees none of them."

"… That makes sense," Leah said, slowly, as the realization dawned upon her. "Did you tell anyone else of this theory?"

"No. I only just came up with it."

Leah looked back up to the sky again. The clouds were still moving. Any minute now, and the sun would come out. A rare thing. "But we wolves are the ones who _imprint_," she pointed out. "And that practically kills all your other choices."

"No," he disagreed. "It hides them. I'm sure one could find them again, if only he or she looked hard enough. Most just haven't tried, because it's too painful."

How well did she know _that_?

"All choices are painful, Leah," he said quietly. It was the first time she'd heard him call her that, without the "Clearwater" tacked on. "But that only makes the outcome much better."

He was right.

"Much better for you werewolves… shape-shifters," he added, "because Alice can't see the possible outcomes."

"So we get surprised," Leah said. "Not all surprises are good, though."

"But they're not all bad, either," he concluded.

A peaceful silence drifted across the small clearing they stood in. Leah crouched down, swiping at a tuft of grass on the ground. Jasper relaxed, ever so slightly, and leaned against a thick tree trunk.

And then the sun came out.

Leah only noticed because a slight warmth touched her face. _I was right, the _sun_ did appear_, she thought, and then, suddenly, _the sun. Jasper's a vampire._

She whirled around.

Sure enough, he was still leaning against the tree, arms folded across his chest, blonde head tilted back. The sudden sunlight reacted immediately to his exposed skin; he looked like a stained-glass window, glittering with the light of the sun.

"Hey, cowboy," she called to him, "did you know you look like the window of a Tiffany's display?"

He glanced down at his bare arms, glimmering with refracted rainbows in the late afternoon sunlight. "Why yes, Leah Clearwater, I do," he said, and to her (slight, but still there) delight, she caught another twang of his old Southern accent, hidden beyond the lengthened, flattened vowels.

"Aladdin," she murmured.

"Excuse me?" His brow furrowed, perplexed.

"Aladdin," she said. "Some Disney movie. Street boy finds genie, beats evil sorcerer, and gets the girl. A princess. Load of shit. Clichéd happy ending and all that."

"I see," Jasper said. He didn't.

"I was just thinking… the evil sorcerer, Fajar or something like that… he called the street kid—Aladdin—a 'diamond in the rough.' The only person who could get the lamp with the genie in it from same cave or something. And… you're fucking sparkling, you look like a fucking diamond, and well, this _is_ a forest. Fucking wildlife. Nature. Rough." Leah shrugged. "Just thinking."

"That's not all that's rough, though," Jasper said, voice quiet.

A few weeks ago, she would have yelled at him, contemplated tearing his throat out, gotten worked up over that statement (made by _him_)—or more specifically, what it implied. She didn't now, though. "No, it's not," was all she said in reply.

"I'm not all that sparkles, either," Jasper continued.

Leah twisted her face in consternation. "Your family's hiding somewhere around here? I don't smell them."

He smiled patiently, the same patient smile she used to want to claw off his face. "They're not. 'All that glitters is not gold'," he quoted.

Leah's face twisted further. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't exactly smell like perfumed rotting garbage."

He chuckled. "I didn't mean that literally," he explained.

Leah knew what he meant then. "Usually I'm called something similar, but derogatory," she mused, a bit astounded. "Burning. Flaming. Angry. I dunno… just not _sparkling_."

"Take it as you will; I meant it as an observation."

"It really says a lot that I'm not asking you what cheesy Lifetime channel movie you got that line from, you know?" She knew he would understand what she really meant by that, and he did.

"Yes, I know." His accent twanged again, and Leah smiled, contentedly.

She'd made her choice.

* * *

_IT'S OVER!_

_-falls over, flailing- First completed multi-chaptered fic, EVER, in any fandom! I'd say something like "aw, my little baby story is all grown up!" or something, but that's too corny. (Corny, cheesy… why not mushroomy or something? Why's it all food, anyway?)_

_Did I ever mention that I'd written out that last ending scene, starting with Jasper sparkling, since chapter four?_

_NOW YOU UNDERSTAND THE TITLE. I__'m a bit surprised no one__'s ever asked, or wondered. In a review or PM, anyway. xD  
_

_… Anyways… about the whole thing Jasper said, about Alice's visions and why she doesn't see the werewolves (/shape-shifters) in them… I feel like I got that from somewhere else, but I'm not sure. I thought I came up with it myself, but I don't exactly know… huh. If I didn't come up with it myself and you know who did (come up with it), please tell me so I can credit them. :D_

_If you've only reviewed once, or haven't reviewed yet, please do so now. I really want to know what you think of the ending, and the whole fic in general. Did I do the friendship thing okay? The whole "character development" thing? Is the ending too cheesy? ~etc, etc._

**_IMPORTANT! Ish. _**_There /might/ be a sequel. Blackwater. (**twilight22lover: **I know I said no sequel, but then I got an idea for one while writing this chapter. xD Sorry for the previously misleading information.) You know the whole "choice" thing in this chapter? I want to expand on that… with Leah/Jacob/Nessie. 'Cause, y'know, Leah/Jacob—blackwater—is awesome, and he's imprinted, and the whole hidden choice/imprinting thing… But then again, perhaps this story would be best as a stand-alone… better by itself._

_So, er, -pokes poll on my profile/bio page-. Yeah. _

_Sorry if Rosalie—or anybody, really—was OOC in this chapter. I had to add Rosalie, too, so sorry if you only wanted Leah/Jasper friendship and absolutely nothing else. Sorry if Leah's reaction to Rosalie's past was too dulled, also, but I thought she'd be the type to lock shocking stuff away and try not to dwell on it too much, instead of freaking out over it._

_Thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed, added to favorites/alerts, etc! This is the end, right here. (And this last chapter wasn't as long as I thought it would be. Yay.) Long author__'s note, ha.  
_


End file.
